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Running with the bulls kills ten so far

bullThe death toll has mounted to ten this year for people involved with bull running in Spain.

The latest victim was an unnamed man in his 40s who died after being struck several times by a bull on Sunday during a run in Borriol, a town in the north-east. Local fiestas were cancelled as a result.

The number of deaths surrounding the sport has made 2015 one of the deadliest, now equal to that in 2009.

The toll was brought up sharply last weekend when four other men lost their lives after being gored by bulls in different towns. One of them was filmed being repeatedly attacked by a bull as he lay prostrate on the wrong side of a protective barrier.

Two others, including a French tourist, died earlier in the summer while trying to film the bulls.

Despite reports of growing opposition, the number of festivals which include bull events has grown by more than 2,000 just in one year, reaching almost 16,000 across the country.

But recently elected mayors in various towns are considering putting an end to public funding for bull festivals, while others are paying more attention to safety measures and a few thinking about holding referenda on the issue.

A number of people have claimed that the increased number of injuries and deaths are due to the runs becoming overcrowded with spectators, some behaving recklessly and provoking the fighting bulls, which weigh in at half a tonne.

“It is an inevitability, an accumulation of coincidences, due mainly to the hordes of people who go to see the bulls,” said Alberto de Jesus, director of bullfighting magazine Bous al Carrer.

But one town, Villafranca de los Caballeros, south of Madrid, bucked the trend by announcing that its €18,000 subsidy for an annual bullfight was to be used instead to purchase books and school supplies.

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Comments  

+1 #2 Mike Harris 2015-08-25 12:41
What is this imbecilic nonsense that a Portuguese jabbing multiple barbed spears into the nerve centres behind the bulls head is somehow different to a Spaniard doing it ? Somehow nicer and more respectful to the bull ?

Both have the aim of weakening it and restricting its defence. Limiting the swing of its head. So making it safer for the other twats following on to then distress it further by tugging it around.

As many Brits say. Let these fools try and do this in the UK - one on one with a British bull. What is left of them should be immediately deported - without medical care. And any friends or family who are found nearby skulking in the bushes beaten up and also shipped out.

To reduce any chance of them inbreeding with the British. Send them home !
+3 #1 Enid 2015-08-25 08:32
provoking the fighting bulls ...

Let us have some honesty and reality here. Why are these cretins doing this idiocy if not to stress the animals to allegedly make the poor animal taste better when slaughtered, carved up and cooked soon afterwards?

The participants may be too half witted or ignorant to realise it but this, like bull fighting, was it's origins.

What living thing on the planet would not get stressed being prodded, loudly jeered, endlessly harassed for an hour or more? The Portuguese up in Ponte de Lima putting their bulls in an even more hopeless situation when tying two ropes to the bulls horns.

A modern variant of their previous barbarity in strapping lit candles to the bull. Then chasing it around - anywhere but towards the river which would have been its sanctuary and put the fires out. Relighting any candles that went out too soon before they had sated their fun.

Nowaday's 'Heroes of the Portuguese Republic' tugging the bull about and wrenching its head with sudden jerks - often causing it to fall to its knees. Then thousands of True Portuguese of all ages - of infant age upwards - cackling at its distress and confusion. A totally abnormal situation.

The Iberians - a truly hopeless backward people ! The European Union so unfortunately saddled with them.

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