Medinaceli - "Fire Bull" Festival

"Fire Bull" Festival

The "Toro Jubilo" or "Toro de fuego" is an animal torture festival that take place in Medinaceli. During this festival, balls of pitch are attached to a bull's horns and set on fire. The bull is then released out into the streets and can do nothing but run around in pain, often smashing into walls in an attempt to douse the fire. These fiery balls can burn for hours, and they burn the bull's horns, body and eyes and cause tremendous stress – all while spectators cheer and run around the victim. Animal rights group PACMA has described the fiesta as "a clear example of animal mistreatment" and PETA as "a sadistic festival".


Read more about this topic:  Medinaceli

Famous quotes containing the words fire, bull and/or festival:

    “For it is a fire that, kindling its first embers in the narrow nook of a private bosom, caught from a wandering spark out of another private heart, glows and enlarges until it warms and beams upon multitudes of men and women, upon the universal heart of all, and so lights up the whole world and all nature with its generous flames.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “Not only the bull attacks his enemies with curved horn, but also the sheep, when harmed fights back.”
    —Propertius Sextus (c. 50–16 B.C.)

    “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose: at the festival of unleavened bread, at the festival of weeks, and at the festival of booths. They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed; all shall give as they are able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you.”
    —Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 16:16,17.