The 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.
