Nevada town would emulate Pamplona event

Friday, May 22, 1998 | 3:44 a.m.

If the city council approves the idea next Tuesday, a Phoenix company will be looking for a dozen bulls with somewhat warm and fuzzy personalities. They'll be enlisted to chase 1,000 runners willing to pay $50 each for the thrill of getting knocked around by each other, and the bulls.

Promoters are aiming to emulate the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, without the carnage.

The idea is to use bulls that are just bad, not nasty.

"In Spain, the bulls are bred to chase people and kill, they're antagonized," promoter Phil Immordino said in a telephone interview Friday. "The bulls we're using are just range bulls. They're not looking to kill anybody. They're just looking to run down the street."

If Immordino can convince the city council in this town of 10,000 that he has covered all the safety and liability bases, the bull run would be held July 11, as part of a three-day western festival.

"My personal feeling is that it's a viable proposal, providing all the bases are covered as far as public safety," Mayor Ken Carter said Friday.

It isn't the first promotional scheme brought to this town 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, near, the Nevada-Utah border.

There was the group that wanted to build a $300 million religious theme park.

"They were so vague about their whole plan that we felt nervous about it," Carter said. "We left it in their court to come back to us with more finite information and they never did."

Then there was motorcycle daredevil Butch Laswell, who was killed in March 1996 trying to jump over a pedestrian bridge at the Oasis Hotel-Casino.

The bull run, if it takes place, would be down Mesquite Boulevard, the town's main street, between the Oasis and Casablanca hotel-casinos. It would go under the same bridge Laswell was killed trying to jump over.

The idea drew some mixed reactions by people in the small gambling community Friday.

"I'd rather play Russian roulette," said Sal Garcia, a band member at the Oasis casino. "I wouldn't want to see it. People do silly enough things already."

But developer Bryan Hafen said it could be good for the town.

"It would be like the old Wild West," Hafen said. "I think it would really draw the crowds."

Carter, who is risk manager at the Casablanca and handles issues such as insurance and safety concerns, said he must be assured that spectators would be safe and there would be no liability problem.

Safety is a legitimate concern. At least 13 people have been killed in the runs in Pamplona since records were begun in 1924. The running of the bulls in the Spanish town dates back to 1591, when daredevils began running alonside when the animals were being driven through town to the bullfight. The nine-day festival, chronicled in Ernest Hemmingway's "The Sun Also Rises," has become an international tourist draw.

Immordino, who tried to sell the idea to the cities of Phoenix and Long Beach, Calif. before turning to Mesquite, contends he has the safety issues covered. His company has promoted professional bull-riding events across the country.

Immordino said Long Beach backed out in the wake of protests from animal rights groups. In Phoenix, the issue was safety concerns.

The bulls will be testy, but not nasty and will have their horns filed down to lessen chances of goring, he said.

The third-mile run route will be lined by six-foot fences designed to protect spectators from the 12 charging bulls. And the fences will have escape sections where runners can slip through.

And he expects the runners to be sober.

"In Spain, most of the runners have been partying and they're drunk," Immordino said. "You've got 7,000 people trampling over each other. In Mesquite, we'll limit the number of runners to 1,000."

Mesquite City Manager Bill Davee called the run "kind of a novel idea."

"Obviously there are many concerns about safety issues for the participants, the animals and the spectators," Davee said.