Man Gored to Death in Spanish Fire-Bull Festival
A man who attended a festival in Navajas, Spain, has been gored to death.
During these flaming-bull festivals, bulls are restrained while contraptions that look to be straight out of a medieval torture chamber are fixed to their heads. These sadistic devices have two balls of pitch (a flammable tar-like substance) that are lit on fire before the bulls are released, ablaze, onto the streets, where they desperately try to escape the fire while crowds jeer and torment them. The bulls often smash into walls in their attempts to free themselves from the flames. The fiery balls can last for hours, burning their horns, bodies and eyes.
Picturing the scene, it should hardly come as a surprise to hear that these festivals often result in human casualties. The question is, how many more lives must be ruined before this barbaric custom is banned?
