Madrid Protests Planned After Latest Bullfighting Outcry
This footage shows a bull apparently “sobbing” in terror as it is pinned to a post with a rope before flaming torches are attached to its horns.
The images show the bull tied to a rope being pulled against a post as it wails in fear. Flaming torches are then attached to its horns before it is released and runs at goading festival goers.
Newsflash obtained the images from PACMA (Partido Animalista Contra el Maltrato Animal; Animalist Party Against Mistreatment of Animals) on Tuesday, 30th August, along with a statement saying that the footage showed the bull “sobbing”.
PACMA added: “The PACMA Animalist Party has shared a video that may hurt the sensibilities of many, but not because of physical violence, but because of the cries of anguish” of a bull.
They said that the footage was filmed in the municipality of Museros, in Valencia, in eastern Spain, on Thursday, 18th August.
PACMA also said: “The images show how, as it leaves his enclosure, it is met by several dozen men who, shouting, quickly surround it and even pounce on it to anchor it to the post on which the devices will be placed on it horns […].”
They said that it was a “situation that cattle experience with great sensitivity and that supposes a real torture according to veterinary reports that have documented similar events.”
The political party said that bulls are tortured at over 17,000 events that take place every year throughout Spain, adding that Valencia has the highest number.
They said that Valencia has over 300 municipalities that celebrate this type of event and that so far this year, seven people had died as a result of participating in them. They added that this was the worst year on record in terms of human deaths, tied with 2015.
PACMA said that its goals are to “bring to light what bullfighting fans and businessmen prefer to hide: the crudest side of bullfighting and bullfighting”. They said that the practice “‘warps’ Spanish culture” and “brings out the worst in human beings”.
They are planning a protest in the capital Madrid on 24th September to call for a ban on bullfighting in Spain. They said that their petition in support of a ban has already notched up over 60,000 signatures.