Animal rights group are outraged after residents in a small town in central Spain rammed a bull to death with their car after it had escaped from a fighting ring.
The incident took place on Sunday in Brihuega during an annual fiesta when a bull named Campanito charged through the ring’s gates and out of the arena, injuring two men on its way through the streets.
Campanito was the last bull in the ring for the concurso de recortadores, an event in which participants try to mount the animals, avoiding the horns, to prove their courage. About 2,400 people had gathered for the event, reported the Guardian.
Video from the incident showed dozens of people running after the bull after it pushed its way through a first set of doors. A second gave way easily, and the bull got out into the streets.
Another clip filmed from an upstairs window shows the bull running in the street, slowing to canter before a car accelerates up from behind it and rams it.
“They hit the bull until it died,” an unnamed resident was quoted as saying by Eldiario.es.
Though the local police identified the driver of the car on Monday, it has so far not made any arrests and the investigation remains open, a spokesperson of Spain’s Guardia Civil said.
Animal rights groups responded strongly to the incident. Pacma, a political party for animal rights, environment and social justice, shared the video of the incident and called for the abolition of bullfights.
“This is art?” asked Sergio Torres, an animal rights activist, as he demanded the elimination of these shows, so that “they do not continue to be the shame of our country.”
The Guadalajara Bullfighting Federation, which represents bullfighting associations across the province that includes Brihuega, however, was all praise for the actions of the residents.
“They organised and this rapid intervention prevented the animal from reaching other areas of the village where the tragedy could have been worse,” it was quoted as saying by the Guardian.
The federation also defended the actions of the locals, saying that “in an extreme occasion when the population is in danger, it becomes necessary to take certain actions to avoid catastrophe”.
