RENEWED calls for a ban on bullfighting and bull running have been made following the death of a seventh person in Spain this summer with four of the fatalities over this weekend alone. 

Miguel Ruiz Perez was gored in the stomach by a young bull during a display involving athletes in Lerin in northern Spain. The 29-year-old raced for safety when the bull charged but was trapped against the wooden fencing around the ring. He died on Sunday night after being rushed to hospital by air ambulance.

Local councillor Jose Alberto Penas died after being gored when he stumbled during a bull run in Penafiel on Saturday morning while in another horrific incident at the weekend a 32-year-old man was gored and bled to death after he tried to film a bull run in the town of Villaseca de la Sagra near Toledo. 

On Friday evening, Rafael Minano, a 53-year-old lottery seller, died after being gored repeatedly by a bull during a run in Blanca near Murcia.

Earlier this summer a 44-year-old French tourist died at a festival in Pedreguer; an 89-year-old spectator died in Gata de Gorgos and a 55-year-old man died after being gored during the St Pere Festival in Grao de Castellon.

Meanwhile a star matador was left fighting for his life after being gored in the groin last week in a fight in Huesca in the north-east of Spain.

Francisco Rivera Ordóñez (pictured below) was carried screaming in agony to a waiting ambulance and spent time in intensive care.

His matador father, Francisco Rivera Pérez, died during a bullfight in 1984.


VIOLENCE

THE deaths have increased calls for a nationwide ban on bull running and fighting although many of the activists appear more concerned about animal cruelty than the human fatalities.

After a video emerged online of the moment Perez was gored, comedian Ricky Gervais renewed his criticism of the “sport” and added that the animals had every right to defend themselves.

At least 100,000 Spaniards agree with him and last month signed a petition calling for an end to public displays of violence against animals.

An official complaint was also made after a bull was shot and killed in the public square of western Spanish town Coria after a bull fight.

Pacma, the Spanish animal rights group made the complaint claiming public safety had been put at risk while also citing the unsavoury aspects of such a gruesome display.

“The bull was shot without any security measures in front of the local police and with the knowledge of the town authorities,” said Pacma.

Last year over 7,200 steers (castrated bull calves) and bulls were killed in nearly 2,000 bull fights in Spain.

However it is defended by many including Spanish King Felipe IV who says it is a “Spanish asset that we have to support”. Right-wing Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is another fan.

Defenders say it is part of Spanish culture with a history going back hundreds of years. It is also lucrative. In 2013 alone it generated £2m for the economy.

Perhaps as a result of that figure, a law was passed that same year defending the “sport” as part of Spain’s cultural heritage and stating it was the government’s duty to “preserve and promote it”.


BOOKS NOT BULLS

HOWEVER a wind of change may be blowing through Spain as a result of the May elections which saw a number of left-wing administrations taking power in towns and cities across the country.

Several mayors have since said they will stop funding the bullfights and the town of Villafranca de los Caballeros, situated about 80 miles south of Madrid has led the way by cancelling their annual event in order to use the money saved on school books and supplies.

“It’s a question of priorities,” said the town’s newly elected socialist mayor, Julián Bolaños. “There is a lot of unemployment in this town and many people simply don’t have money to buy school supplies for their children.” 

He estimated that the town, which has a population of 5,200, was spending as much as £15,000 a year to hold the annual event.

Manuela Carmena, the new mayor of Madrid, a traditional bastion of the bullfight, has said publicly that “not one euro of public money” will go toward bullfighting; in the city of Valencia the mayor, Joan Ribó, has likewise stated that no government money will go to finance any event in which bulls are killed; in Alicante, the bull run which has traditionally been a part of the city’s August festival was replaced by a cycling race, and the new government has said it plans to ban municipal land from being used in bullfights by 2017.

In the town of Dénia, there is to be a local referendum over whether the annual bous a la mar -  in which the bull is pushed into the sea – should be staged again.

Meanwhile in Zaragoza, where firecrackers are attached to the bulls’ horns in the festival of toros embolados, no more public money is to be spent on the event.

There is still much to be done before these events are banned all over Spain. This year alone more than 16,000 events are planned in 3,000 towns and cities across the country.

In the end it could come down quite simply to economics. If tourists start to avoid the events because of the number of fatalities and injuries it may make more sense to spend the money on other items. 

It is possible that the choice of school books over bull fights may be the writing on the wall.