Shocking moment bull jumps over wall with 50 foot fall behind it in front of screaming crowd at Spanish festival – sustaining fatal injuries
- The 91-stone bull, named Vicioso, was sedated and put to sleep
- He was unleashed to attack crowds during festivities in Ontinyent
A stressed bull suffered incurable catastrophic injuries after jumping over a wall during a Spanish festival with a steep fall behind it.
The 91-stone (580-kilogram) animal, named Vicioso, was sedated before being put to sleep after vets concluded nothing could be done to save it.
Dramatic footage shows the bull leaping 15 meters into the abyss after being released to attack the crowd during the Bou de les Penyes festival in the Valencian municipality of Ontinyent on Saturday.
Revelers gasped and put their hands on their heads in shock as the animal went over the edge of the low stone wall without seeing what lay beyond.
The animal crash-landed on the hard edge of a riverbed near a bridge a few meters upstream.
Nauseating footage captured the moment a bull charged over a wall and plunged to his death in Spain. The 91-stone (580-kilogram) animal, named Vicioso, was sedated before being put to sleep after vets concluded there was nothing that could be done to save it
Vicioso was the second bull to appear during the fourth day of the bullfighting and running festivity.
Everything was going normally until the animal slipped out of its rope and ran at high speed along the curving edge of a road.
Reaching the bend in the road that crosses the city’s Pont Vell bridge, the powerful animal leaped unabated over the parapet of the bridge, which is just over half a meter high.
“These are unexpected accidents,” said Vicioso’s owners. “With brave bulls, you never know how they’re going to react or behave. In this case there was a low wall and he came out very strong. It is clear that he saw it as an opening’.
Saturday’s incident led to a suspension of the festivities.
German Zaragoza, who had helped organize them, said: ‘This was a tragic accident of the sort that rarely happens.
“The bull came down the slope very quickly and jumped without seeing what was behind the wall.
“The veterinary service acted very quickly to sedate it.”
A spokesman for the livestock industry that raised Vicioso added: ‘With fighting bulls like this, you never know how they’re going to react or behave.
“In this case there was a low barrier, it went off very quickly and clearly saw a clearing in the crowd.”
But critic Marco Pereira raged: “This is sheer and utter barbarism.
“There’s no tradition here, it’s idiocy.”
Another furious resident said, “It’s shameful that people still play with animals.”
An 82-year-old man was hospitalized after being thrown into the air by a bull in Ontinyent last December. Initial reports at the time said he suffered serious injuries, but medics later confirmed that the animal’s horns had pads that saved the retiree’s life.
Researcher Rosa Fernandez found last year that 34.7 percent of the Spanish population supported bull festivities and wanted to keep them, 44.1 percent wanted them banned and 21.2 percent opposed but did not want them banned.
THIS is the traumatic moment when a stressed bull suffers catastrophic injuries that vets decided he couldn’t recover from after jumping off a bridge when he was let loose to charge into crowds at a Spanish festival
Terrified Bull jumps a bridge in Ontinyent on Saturday
Reaching the bend in the road that crosses the city’s Pont Vell bridge, the powerful animal jumped without slowing down the bridge’s parapet, which is just over half a meter high.
Everything was going normally until the animal slipped out of its rope and ran at high speed along the curving edge of a road
Saturday’s incident led to a suspension of the festivities