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Another bullfight goring photo to make you wince (or cheer, whatever)

Jul 13, 2010, 5:30 PM EDT

69 Comments

In case you’re wondering where the left horn is located in this photo, your first instinct was correct. Yowch. When it comes to bullfighting, the term “gored in the scrotum” makes me very happy. Because there are few things I enjoy less than watching grown men skewer an innocent animal with spears, slowly killing it for the amusement of people in puffy shirts. So when the tables are turned and the Shish Kabob includes human testicles, well, I figure that the victim was asking for it.
So add this photo to my matadors-being-gored collection (the best of which is still this). The matador here is El Juli of Spain, who was gored on Monday in a fight during the San Fermines fiesta in Pamplona, which includes the annual Running of the Bulls. This bull got Senor Juli right in the joyas de familia, providing him a fun night in the hospital and the highest-pitched voice on the Iberian Peninsula. Oh, and here’s the injury report from the seventh run of the festival:

A man was gored in an arm and two others were injured in a fast-paced penultimate running of the bulls at Spain’s San Fermin festival Tuesday, officials said.

All three — Spanish men whose identities and ages were not disclosed — were hospitalized and later released, the regional government of Navarra said, adding that three other people injured during the seven days of runs remain hospitalized.

Those still hospitalized were a 37-year-old Pamplona resident, well known locally for running the course every year and who was injured Sunday; a 20-year-old British man gored Friday; and an 18-year-old Australian who suffered 3 fractured vertebrae on July 7, the regional government said.

By the way, Spain, before you get all huffy over this post, please note: Paul the Octopus predicted this entire thing.
***
Three injured in Spain’s running of the bulls [Associated Press]
Ricky Gervais Partners with WSPA to End Bullfighting [WSPA-USA.org]

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  1. Nemesistisi - Jul 13, 2010 at 11:12 PM

    “Bullfighting has been a long standing time honored art in Spain. It pits the Brave (bull and man). Don’t comment on something you know little about. If it offends you don’t watch it.”
    Go Bull’s. One sadistic fool has paid a small price for absolute cruelty to animals. The bull is brave, the man is a sniveling coward!!!
    This is not art, it is staged cruel butchery and sadistic! People who watch bull fights and defend bull fights are sick!!!! As to knowning little about it, the horses who are brutally used to facilitate the slicing of the bull’s neck muscles so that the bull cannot hold his head up for a “fair” fight, has had it’s voice box torn out without anesthesia, so that the horse’s screams when being gore do not “offend” the audience! The padding on the horses is also to protect the viewers “sensibilities” not the horse! The horses are not fed or watered…..for their one time event!
    If the bull is a real fighter and “Brave”, it is stabbed in the lungs so the bull fighter can have a “fighting” chance to kill it! Their is nothing brave about this!!!!
    Go bulls!!!

  2. Eric - Jul 13, 2010 at 11:15 PM

    Looks like both you and the matador lost this one Bob. In this democracy I fear you have been voted down.

  3. Bull O. Knee - Jul 13, 2010 at 11:19 PM

    Oh my…Touche, fellow human!!

  4. Beth - Jul 13, 2010 at 11:25 PM

    Great comments Rick. Go get him bull!

  5. christina mcguinness - Jul 14, 2010 at 12:01 AM

    Sick,sick,sick..did you ever hear a bull cry! Well watch the P.E.T.A videos.

  6. chasman - Jul 14, 2010 at 12:06 AM

    Not all bullfighting results with death for the bull. There are other forms in northern Spain that will appeal to those opposed traditional bullfighting. How do you feel about hunting or fishing? how about animals that are slaughtered for meat? This is a difficult subject

  7. b.a.c. - Jul 14, 2010 at 12:28 AM

    Of course this is so much more humane than execution by gunfire in the US, or electric chair or a concoction of drugs.
    Simply put, because different cultures choose to partake in events you might not particularly like you should not call them out, unless you are willing to do the same about those events in the US that people outside our country would not like. Just saying man. Be fair. You should definitely call out all the fur vendors in the US, since you know innocent animals are killed for it.
    I don’t like bull fighting for the record. Oh and if you eat meat, have you ever seen a slaughter house? Ya.

  8. Dre - Jul 14, 2010 at 1:34 AM

    Every country and culture has it’s own unique sports and tradition and we should respect them. If you disapprove then don’t attend you have that right. We should stop trying so hard to force our own believes and values upon others.

  9. Bob - Jul 14, 2010 at 5:24 AM

    Killing an animal is not a sport or a tradition…it is a slaughter. Don’t get me wrong…I am no tree hugger but stabbing an animal multiple times for a large crowd’s viewing pleasure is just freaking sick. And don’t give me this crap about a time honored tradition and different culture…wrong is wrong, end of story. If you have been doing something as a people for hundreds of years and it was wrong the very first time you did it, it has been wrong for hundreds of years…see slavery, the holocaust, witch hunts, killing native people and taking their land, etc…
    And if you think the above mentioned events don’t compare…then just ask the bulls…

  10. Laura - Jul 14, 2010 at 7:08 AM

    bullsfighting is a horrible tradition, i agree with that, but i don’t understand some people who hates to see cruelty against animals but they love to watch these videos and cheating when a bullfighter is death…..? if you have that sensibility and you (like me) hate to see torture and suffering what is the point of having fun with this?

  11. JerryF - Jul 14, 2010 at 7:50 AM

    Does the bull have the same option?

  12. TominNH - Jul 14, 2010 at 8:09 AM

    In Portugal, they have the very same, time honored tradition. The brave matador, the brave beast! WE never hear about this. That may be because in Portugal, they NEVER kill the bull!!

  13. Ole' - Jul 14, 2010 at 8:30 AM

    Why is that woman in the background smiling?

  14. Concerned - Jul 14, 2010 at 8:35 AM

    A “time honored tradition”? Yeah, so is beating your wife.
    You: “Don’t comment on something you know little about.”
    Are you serious?
    One look is all it takes to “understand” it.
    Don’t insult the intelligence of humanity with that one!
    There is too much rampant suffering in the world to intentionally label the needless suffering of ANY living thing as “sport”.
    And ditto for those morons in Peru who enjoy hanging the endangered condor upside down by it’s feet, so they might gallop by and punch it in the head.
    Real heroes, all of you.
    Sheesh.

  15. Ken - Jul 14, 2010 at 8:40 AM

    Bullfighting, just from the short moments I’ve viewed the “sport”, is pretty barbaric. And the running of the bulls….I find it interesting and somewhat justified to know that there are injuries among the runners. they CHOSE to participate. Not the animals.
    How about the guy in Bugaria (I think that’s the country) that stirred up a hornets nest of reaction when he started posting kittens and puppies that he feeds his poisonous snakes, having to chop them up into pieces after they are killed by the snake? Is anyone going to claim that this is a time-honored tradition? Society should be moving forward, instead we are sliding backwards towards a collapse of society.

  16. Ken - Jul 14, 2010 at 8:43 AM

    Concerned: Beautifully written. Thank you.

  17. rkaralius - Jul 14, 2010 at 8:58 AM

    “…for I hadn’t had so much fun since the day my brother’s dog Rover got run over (Rover was killed by a Pontiac, and it was done with such grace and artistry that the witnesses awarded the driver both ears and the tail)…”

  18. Concerned more - Jul 14, 2010 at 9:03 AM

    b.a.c.
    True, the execution of criminals in the US and Europe, such as hangings and beheadings, once resembled an entertainment event.
    And let’s not forget the Roman gladiatorial arenas.
    Then humankind, at some point, became more humane. There are lethal injections, which replaced the electric chair for the most part, which would, at times, cause the eyes of the convicted felon to explode, along with other gory circumstances.
    Now capital punishment here in the U.S. in no way even faintly resembles a spectator “sport”, though family members of the one who had been murdered attend in an effort to seek closure, and, admittedly, to sate their desire for revenge.
    I have my own issues with slaughterhouses…and hunting. Why? Cuz’ people just get uncaring, and sloppy when “humanely” disposing of a living thing.
    Ever seen how fancy-shmancy restaurants come across veal? Not for the squeamish.
    However, none of the above are considered “sport”…and these acts of killing often feed people.
    In the case of capital punishment, it does serve as a deterrent to some degree, and ensures that the murderer will not somehow squirm his/her way back onto the street.
    But there is nothing “sporting” about these scenarios, save for hunting…
    …and we’re working on that one.

  19. Concerned - Jul 14, 2010 at 9:14 AM

    I’m here every Thursday.
    Try the veal!
    No, on second thought, DON’T try the veal…

  20. dsims7_2000 - Jul 14, 2010 at 9:19 AM

    I don’t think bull fighting offends us as much as you and your comment do? Brave? Please, how is druging a helpless animal and stabbing it make one brave?
    As someone commented, he was in Redeo but he did not kill or drug the thing. That make him brave because he practices his sport on equal terms.
    And to the comment on Hunting and Fishing. Hunting is done 1 week a year to control the population, if you have ever had a deer hit your $45K BMW you would understand. All the fishermen I know are catch and release, what you get out of the store is farm raised.
    Brave? You should do stand up comedy!

  21. Al - Jul 14, 2010 at 9:28 AM

    TO ROBERT EMMERT: Yo dude, I lived in Madrid for 6 years and went to 5, maybe 6 bullfights (every time someone came to visit me from the states, they wanted to see a frickin bullfight). What a barbaric “sport”…oh, that’s right…it is not a sport, but rather a dance (a play) between the matador and the bull. Once the picadores get done with the bull, the bull is out of it. The purpose of the picadores is to try and tear the main nerve on the back of the bull’s head so that the bull cannot raise its head. Great dance huh? We should try that on Dancing With the Stars…lol
    Oh, we haven’t even discussed the fact that prior to the picadores doing their thing, you have the men on “padded” horseback poking 10 foot lances at the bull’s neck to accomplish the same purpose as the picadores. Sounds like we need to incorporate that into horseracing…each jockey has their own lance to take out the other riders and horses.
    By the time the matador comes into the ring, there is so much blood pouring out from behind the bull’s neck, that one cannot but hope that the matador puts a quick end to such an inhumane “dance.”
    Want to make things even…have the matador go one-on-one with that 1000lb-1500lb bull…now that is the dance…the dance of a scared matador running around the bullring trying not to get killed…
    ROBERT: you probably like dog fighting events…you’re sick dude. Go get some help.

  22. Danny - Jul 14, 2010 at 9:53 AM

    Robert,
    The bull is weakened by other people before the bull fighter comes out. How is this fair??? Lemme see the bull fighter come out with the bull fully healthy and then i would say “wow. that bull fighter has some balls, killing a fully healthy bull.”. But no, the bull is half dead already.
    The Spanish are a bunch of animals. I hope every bull fighter get his ballls ripped out.

  23. Animal Lover - Jul 14, 2010 at 10:08 AM

    Hooray for the bull! More gorings, please. Until this cruel, barbaric nonsense stops. Tradition my ARSE! Are these people so lacking in imagination and creativity (let alone compassion and conscience) that this is the only way they can entertain themselves? GORE AWAY!! GO BULLS!

  24. kb2dbl - Jul 14, 2010 at 10:14 AM

    If the man is so brave why is it necessary for other men to stick the brave bull (who didn’t ask to be there) with pics until he bleeds enough to weaken him enough so that it is relatively safe for the not-so-brave bullfighter to stick the bull with his sword after which another underling administers the coup-de-grace and kills the brave bull? All those brave men to kill one innocent, but brave, bull — bull.

  25. kb2dbl - Jul 14, 2010 at 10:21 AM

    Simply put, what crime did the bull commit to justify it’s execution? And you’re right about killing for fur clothing but even those poor beasties aren’t tormented before they are dispatched. This could go on and on, but I don’t see any connection between your points and bullfighting.

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