Animal rights advocates are steaming after a 500-pound-plus bull escaped from a bullfighting ring in Spain over the weekend and met a terrible fate. The Guardian reports that spectators had gathered early Sunday in Brihuega to attend a "concurso de recortadores" event, in which those taking part taunt the bull, dancing around it in the ring to win the honors of being called the most "courageous." In this case, however, Campanito the bull, the last featured animal of the show, tired of the spectacle, rammed himself through two sets of doors, and escaped into the streets. Video shows him breaking through one of the sets of doors, then cuts to several people running after him. Campanito gored two elderly men as he made his way through the village, at which point residents decided they would take drastic measures: Someone would hit Campanito with a car. A video (warning: graphic) shows a vehicle slamming into the bull, a woman screaming in the background at impact.
Activists are crying animal abuse, including Sergio Torres, who heads up the Spanish government's animal protection division. "Shameful and terrible images," he tweeted after the incident. "This is art?" Torres called for severe sanctions, and to get rid of these types of bullfighting events altogether, so "they do not continue to be the shame of our country." A representative from the AnimaNaturalis animal rights group agrees, noting that by fleeing, "Campanito was only guilty of what we would all do in his place," per the Guardian. Others are offering support for residents doing whatever it took to stop Campanito in his tracks. "This rapid intervention prevented the animal from reaching other areas of the village, where the tragedy could have been worse," a local bullfighting group says in a statement. One of the men gored by the bull suffered just minor injuries, while another remains hospitalized in stable condition. (More bulls stories.)
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