Bull Kills Itself After Fiery Torches Put on Horns

A horrifying scene out of a bull festival in Spain has reignited a firestorm—this one a literal one—around the subject of how bull are used as entertainment. The Independent reports on a bull that was tied to a post in front of a "baying" crowd during the "Bulls in the Street" event in Foios, which the paper describes as a smaller-scale version of Pamplona's Running of the Bulls. The Daily Express notes that organizers attached burning torches to the bull's horns in front of a few hundred spectators, who watched as the frightened bull started freaking out, running in terror for a few seconds after it was untied, then dashing head-on into the post it had just been tethered to.

Video footage shows the bull immediately fall to the ground motionless after head-butting the pole; local reports said it died instantly. The bull's death reinvigorates the debate swirling around bullfighting and animal cruelty, with animal rights advocates railing against it. "How many lives will still be taken in the name of traditions that are nothing but barbarity?" one such group posted on Facebook. Despite Spain's storied cultural history with the practice, various regions in the country have started decrying it, with most citizens being against national funding for this "cultural asset," the Independent notes. "Torturing animals is not fun, it's barbaric" one commenter posted on a local newspaper site, per the Metro. (More bulls stories.)