FOUR PEOPLE WERE gored to death over the weekend in Spain.
This brings the number of deaths since the start of July up to seven.
These have happened in bull running incidents, which frequently involve members of the public, as opposed to trained bull fighters.
Among those killed over the weekend was Jose Alberto Penas, a 36-year-old town councillor from the town of Traspinedo who was gored at an event in Penafiel, a small town to the north of Madrid.
The Spanish website El Diario is reporting that around 7,200 bulls and steers (a castrated bull) were killed in bull fights in Spain last year.
The BBC is reporting that 2,000 bullfights are still held in the country each year with the activity being designated part of cultural heritage in 2013. According to Spanish economics lecturer Juan Medina, bullfighting generated €282.4 million in revenue in 2013.
Last week a prominent Spanish bullfighter Francisco ‘Paquirri’ Rivera Ordonez was gored in the groin, with the bull’s horn going 25 centimetres deep but missing any vital organs.
Last Monday also saw a man gored to death while filming a bull run on his mobile phone in the town of Villaseca de la Sagra.
In 2012 Catalonia introduced a law outlawing bullfighting. The move was seen as partially motivated by political nationalism, as the tradition of ‘toro embolado’, where lit flare are attached to the bull’s horns, still continues in the region.
Read: Fox-tossing, goose-pulling and rat-baiting: bloodsports through the ages
Also: Spanish bullfighter in serious condition after being gored in groin
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