Pamplona (Shutterstock)
A Spaniard died and two other men, including a Japanese man, were gored in bull-runs in Spain on Saturday, as the San Fermin festival in the northern town of Pamplona entered its third day.
The 28-year-old died after a bull’s horn pierced his lung and heart during a run in the southeastern village of Pedreguer near Valencia, a spokesman for the regional government said.
The bull caught him as he was trying to help another runner in the annual event. Story.
Víctor Barrio is rushed to the hospital (Twitter)
Spaniards were faced with a horrifying sight on Saturday when a famous bullfighter, Víctor Barrio, was gored in the chest and killed live on television, NBC News reports.
The 29-year-old Barrio was in the ring with a bull named Lorenzo in the town of Teruel when the bull caught him with a horn that pierced his chest.
The fight was being broadcast live on television, where Lorenzo could be seen soaked in his own blood from lances that were thrust into him, which occurs during the process of a bullfight. The matador generally slaughters the bull with a sword at the end of the fight. Story.
It’s long past time that these relics of toxic masculinity die, rather than people. It’s time to stop the bull, literally.
Too bad the bull can’t understand this isn’t an actual fight but a mock fight he’s supposed to lose.
I know this doesn’t sound very compassionate towards the killed and injured, but I just can’t stand how we’re supposed to be shocked that an attacked and provoked animal is acting like an attacked and provoked animal. Yes, stop this “game”. I hope this happening on live television will do something towards people actually doing something about it rather than just being shocked and then gleefully waiting for the next iteration because tradition.
Beatrice @ 1:
I’m wearing cynicism today. I think people watch this sort of thing in order to be horrified, and I think at least some people are hoping to see injuries and death. Bullfighting and the running of bulls are both based on this insane idea of masculinity, and they just need to go.
My sentiments exactly. I’m not going to stoop to Darwin Awards bullshit, but this wasn’t exactly a case of a man peacefully taking a stroll and being attacked out of nowhere. This was deliberately set up to become violent and was 100% avoidable. This highlights perfectly why I despise blind adherence to tradition. “Oh it’s tradition” is an insufficient defense of anything.
A group of men slowly torturing a powerful animal to death is a sick, sick “game” to play.
The forty-foot high killer rats would enjoy this, as the runners, the runnees, and the obstacles to run around. And then they eat the matador.
… the running of bulls … based on this insane idea of masculinity…
Even at my most macho, I didn’t conceive of setting up a situation where my only option was running away as a display of bravery.
Caine
It’s like NASCAR.
Yeah, surprise, surprise, I guess no one explained the rules to the bull. Not that he’d agree to them necessarily.
When I was little, I had a lot of sympathy for Ferdinand. Loved that story.
But with sharper horns and less airbags.
rq @ 8:
Me too. I still have that book.
Technically, so do I. :)
(It’s one of my missions in August to collect a few more childhood favourites and bring them back home with me -- and I just realized I use the term ‘home’ for both Canada and here.)
Bull riding, too.
If rednecks want to consensually get on eachothers’ backs and hump eachother off, I’m all for it.
No… wait…. We need to genengineer ourselves a new top predator. Something with the brain of a velociraptor (i.e.: about as smart as a board with a nail hammered through it) the speed of Bruce Lee, and armor-thick skin. Something that doesn’t feel pain. Something that makes the xenomorph in ALIEN look as cuddly as Sarah Palin by comparison. Something vicious and unfeeling as Newt Gingrich. Something that would make rational people heave a sigh of relief to see it die.
Then -- let the bullfighters and riders and hunters and whatever, go after that. Show me your pasa doble.
Me@#11:
Alternative B: give someone lots of alcohol and put them behind the wheel of a monster truck. Then let the other guys dodge. Ideally only the truck gets hurt.
Marcus @ 11:
If you want stupid, you don’t want a raptor. Those buggers were smart.
Caine@#13:
If you want stupid, you don’t want a raptor. Those buggers were smart.
Well, it shouldn’t be something smart enough to regret its own passing. So that doesn’t leave much except some fish and some Trump supporters. But cruelty is cruelty. :/
What always makes me pause is the basic cowardice involved in some of these things. OK, getting into a ring with a bull -- maybe not so cowardly. But around here I have to listen to occasional shit from hunters who pat themselves on the back for calling in an airstrike on a deer, with a scope-sighted rifle and near perfect camouflage (deer aren’t that bright..) I wonder how they’d react if they were in a similarly unbalanced situation -- say, if they were in a small room with a grizzly bear, or had the opportunity to knife fight a tiger. It’s weird. It’s like “ooooh look what I can use power-tools to kill!” Ugh.
It’s good we got past the bear-baiting and public executions. They’ve almost shut down dog-fighting. Slow progress is still progress.