Women demand female Pamplona bull run - with cows

MADRID, July 9 (Reuters) Women in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona, world-famous for its ferocious bull-running festival, are demanding their own version complete with cows instead of bulls.

A student website, www.estudiln.net, set the ball rolling with its campaign ''Cows want to run'' which asks for a separate encierro, as the bull-runs are known, where only women are allowed to take part.

Women have been allowed to take part in the San Fermin bull-running for some years but they still represent a tiny minority of the thousands of runners who attempt to dodge 600-kilo bulls along an 800-metre course through the streets of Pamplona.

The students say it's only logical that women should have their own bull-run.

''Cows, as well as bulls, have four legs and a natural instinct to run,'' says their manifesto. ''An encierro for cows, would put Pamplona at the vanguard of traditional fiestas with equality for men and women.'' Organisers of the festival, which runs from July 7-14, have not responded to the suggestion.

And just what the late Ernest Hemingway, who made the bull-run in Pamplona internationally famous, would have thought will never be known.

REUTERS SV ND1502