Three Dead at Spanish Bull Run in Valencia

Three people who had all taken part in the traditional Spanish bull run festival in Valencia died in a period of 24 hours from wounds suffered during the event.

The famous traditional bous al carrer (bull-running), where bulls charge through towns often with people running ahead of them, resumed three years after being postponed due to COVID-19, attracting many people.

According to local emergency services, the three men who died had all been badly injured during events in the past two weeks of its recommencement.

In one of the incidents, a 56-year-old man who had been standing behind a block in the middle of the street was tossed in the air by a bull in Picassent south of the city of Valencia; he suffered a traumatic brain injury.

He died on Tuesday in a hospital in Valencia just nine days after the event.

Another man, aged fifty years old, was also reported dead in the hospital after his lung was pierced by a bull in Meliana to the north of Valencia.

On Monday, July 8th, a 64-year-old French tourist died after days in intensive care. He had been gored by a bull in a village near Alicante further down the coast, an emergency service spokesman said.

Controversy surrounding Spanish bull run on human lives and animal rights

A number of arguments have been posed to challenge the viability of games such as the bull run. Animal rights groups have long been pointing to the dangers for the public and the animals in such games.

Spain’s support group for animals (Pacma) repeated its call for the abolition of bull festivals, criticizing the three Valencia festivals’ organizers for endangering residents’ lives and inflicting abuse on animals.

In his reaction to the incident of the 64-year-old French tourist, Josep Antoni Riera Vicent the mayor of Meliana, said, “The bull was an animal, and chance accidents of this type were a risk that people took.”

Goring incidents have become a regular feature of bull-running in recent years. Spain’s most famous festival, the San Fermin running of the bulls in Pamplona, has seen thirty-five injuries this year.

In the past eight years, Pamplona’s bull run has claimed the lives of over twenty people, directly or indirectly involved in the runs.

A 2019 study found that the bous al carrer season created more than three thousand jobs and brought in €300 million from annual events, hence providing a much-needed boost to Valencia’s economy.