But tradition doesn't make something right. Bullfighting is a cruel blood sport that should have been relegated to the history books a long time ago. No matter what its history is, bullfighting consists of the torture, mutilation and slaughter of animals for entertainment. Running nude through the streets of Pamplona attracts media attention and provides a tremendous opportunity to spread the word about how animals suffer during bullfights.
Tourists need to know that bulls suffer a slow, painful death in the bullring, and the 'Running of the Nudes' is a fantastic way to get that message out to the international public. The race gives people a fun, festive cruelty-free alternative to the Running of the Bulls.
In addition, the race draws attention to the horrific plight of bulls and the barbarity involved in bullfights, which are held not only in Spain but in other countries as well. Bulls are bred in fields and are not accustomed to the noise of the crowd or being surrounded by people. They are kept in crowded, dark enclosures, and when they are prodded onto the streets with electric shocks, they are momentarily blinded by the sunlight.
They are terrified and are hit by runners with rolled up newspapers. The corners of the bulls' route are quite sharp, and the animals often lose their footing and slide into walls, breaking bones and injuring themselves. All the bulls who slip and slide on the streets of Pamplona are running towards a bloody and horrific death in the bullring.
Each year, more than 40, bulls are barbarically slaughtered in Spain's bullrings. They are repulsed, disgusted and saddened by the cruelty of the spectacle. At best, the term "bullfighting" is a misnomer, as there is usually little competition between a nimble sword-wielding matador Spanish for 'killer' and a confused, maimed, psychologically tormented and physically debilitated bull. One of the biggest supporters of bullfighting is the tourist industry. Travel agents and bullfight promoters portray the fight as a festive and fair competition.
What they do not reveal is that the bull never has a chance to defend himself, much less to survive. The distribution of the main injuries is shown in Fig. The most frequent anatomical location of injuries was the thigh and groin area patients; The distribution of injuries by anatomical location is represented in Fig. Three of these lesions resulted in immediate death they were located in the chest, damaging great vessels, and in one case, also the heart. The remaining 73 vascular lesions were eligible for surgical repair, 70 of them were located in the groin area, 2 damaged the arteries and iliac veins and required a laparotomy on-site and 1 the axillary artery.
Thus, vascular involvement was present in All patients with vascular lesion who underwent vascular repair survived.
One of them suffered the amputation of a lower extremity. There is a higher probability that vascular lesions will occur in first class bullrings 7. The prognosis for this lesion was classified as mild in cases Six patients 0.
Results of the multiple logistic regression test concerning prognosis are shown in Table 4 and those concerning mortality rate in Table 5. Patients sustaining a back injury or vascular lesion are, respectively, 11 and times more likely to die than patients whose injuries do not affect any great vessels and are found in other anatomical locations.
Ninety-one percent of injuries were inflicted by bulls older than 4 years of age. The 6 deaths 0. The main lesions among deceased matadors were chest goring with great blood vessel injury in two cases and a severe spinal cord injury in the remaining case.
The cause of death in forcados was blunt abdominal trauma and hypovolaemic shock. The recortador died as a result of a chest goring, with cardiac injury.
Four of the deaths registered in the study happened in third class bullrings and one in a second-class bullring. No deaths occurred in first class bullrings. A total of 31 gorings on chest and underarm were recorded in the study: 20 of them occurred in first class bullrings, 2 in second class and 9 in third class ones. Hence, the mortality rate of chest injuries was 9. Forty-eight abdominal trauma were recorded.
There were 27 open abdominal injuries and 21 blunt abdominal traumas. Thirty patients underwent laparotomy. Fifteen of these operations took place in first class bullrings, five in second, and eight in third class ones. There were no deaths among the patients surgically treated at the bullring infirmary, but two forcados that suffered blunt abdominal trauma and were transfer to hospital for delayed laparotomy died.
Publications on bull horn injuries are rare in international literature and existing ones are focused on clinical cases or case series limited to a given hospital. One of the most important aspects of our paper is that it is the first study on prognostic factors in fighting bull horn injuries to be published in the last 30 years.
The most recent article on this topic was published in by Monferrer-Guardiola Our study probably gathers the widest series ever published, as it included more than injured patients. The main epidemiological contributions of our study can be summarised in the fact that, even though the mortality rate of this kind of accidents is low 0. These accidents are more frequent in third class bullrings, with no bullring-related significant differences in goring prognosis.
The low mortality rate 0. This historical downward tendency regarding mortality rate in professional bullfighting events is probably due to the higher quality of care in relation to ATLS Advanced Trauma Life Support protocols, the increasingly demanding healthcare requirements stipulated by the legislation in place, and the greater professionalisation of bullfighters. The accident rate observed coincides with the tendency stated by Chambres 16 , who informs of the need of surgical intervention in one out of fifteen bullfighting events 6.
In our series, the accident rate is somewhat higher and shows a slightly growing tendency during the period of the study. We are not able to explain this trend. The incidence of injuries in female is anecdotal, as is their active participation in these events. However, other authors 19 publish that, while the most severe injuries are sustained by matadors and happen during the bullfight in the bullring, the commonest injuries are sustained by aficionados and bullfighting professionals other than matadors such as stockbreeders or veterinaries , in third class bullrings and minor events such as encierros and becerradas.
The differences between the information previously shown and what we observed in our study are difficult to explain. Probably, the databases used and the variations in events according to the traditions of the different geographical areas could partially justify them. The injury most frequently published in literature is goring, as we also observed in the study.
We find these data should be taken into account for the composition and training of medical teams. Sixty-five patients in our series sustained multiple lesions and fit into the criteria of severely polytraumatised having multiple life-threatening injuries.
When assessing these patients, it is important to consider them as multisystem trauma patients 4 , Hence, the medical team must be adequately trained in Advanced Trauma Life Support protocols. Despite having collected 27 open abdominal trauma, early surgical treatment in the infirmary of the bullring resulted in no deaths.
This observation justifies the need to have an adequate infrastructure to perform a laparotomy, even in third class bullrings. As happened in the study of Zamora-Lomeli , chest trauma is the first cause of death in our series, mainly due to heart and great vessel injuries.
Thoracotomy is recommended in penetrating trauma, and the urgency and approach to be followed will depend on the haemodynamic status and the injury. Goring in the back has been shown as a prognostic factor of mortality. The underlying reason is that gorings in the back torso entail a high risk of visceral injuries. Thus, liberal policy of laparotomy should be followed in case of any doubt.
Risk factors for a severe, serious, or guarded prognosis are vascular lesion, head injury, fracture, goring and animal age. Although there was no mortality in cases of vascular lesions in the extremities, these require immediate surgical intervention. Analysis of the information shown encourages us to reflect on the training and qualification of the medical team of the bullring and suggest some modifications of the bullfighting regulations currently in place to diminish the morbidity and mortality rate among patients.
The possibility of assisting polytraumatised patients requires the medical team to be properly trained in Advanced Trauma Life Support. On another front, the common localisation of injuries in the thighs and groin area also calls for the medical team to have a deep knowledge on surgical anatomy of the lower extremity. Gorings damaging great vessels in the chest are fatal. However, urgent laparotomy in abdominal trauma and immediate treatment of the peripheral vascular lesion are associated to a high survival rate, which is why a vascular surgeon or general surgeon with training in vascular lesion treatment should be required to be a part of the medical team.
Infirmaries of bullrings are a medical-surgical care service similar to that provided in military health care. The commonest procedure consists of an adequate initial stabilisation and a rapid transfer to the nearest hospital centre. New studies are needed to compare outcomes in patients treated in situ and those transferred to hospitals. The fact that bullring class means no statistical difference in prognosis should promote a better provision of health resources and end the differences in medical team composition in 3rd class bullrings, which are normally the ones farthest from the hospital.
The requirement of the presence of an anaesthesiologist in third class bullrings and minor events only when horses are used rejoneo and picadors is not logical, as the accident rate in rejoneo s is 4. The anaesthesiologist should be required in the medical team in all bullfighting events. Besides, bullfighting events held in third class bullrings should only allow to fight bulls younger than 4 years of age. Our study has a number of constraints such as its retrospective design, the limited information offered by medical reports and the fact that we could not include certain factors which are likely to be prognostic, such as medical team composition or distance to a general hospital.
Lack of information about transfer to hospital rate, delays in diagnosis and time to surgical intervention, which may influence morbidity and mortality, is another limitation of the study. A regression model based on only 6 deaths as the dependent variable is questionable, especially given the lack of information in the database regarding other potential confounders. However, these limitations do not undermine the value of both the epidemiologic knowledge this study provides and the protocol modifications we suggest.
Further successive studies examining hospital stay or complications of these lesions are still needed. Fighting bull horn injuries are frequent in bullfighting events held in Spain, Portugal and southern France, although their mortality rate is low.
Prognostic factors of severity are vascular lesion, head trauma, fracture, goring, and age of the animal. The most reliable prognostic factors of mortality are vascular lesion and goring in the back. Twenty percent of gorings located in thigh and groin areas are accompanied by a vascular lesion. Thus, we suggest the presence of a surgeon experienced in vascular surgery and an anaesthesiologist in all medical teams.
Nagarajan, S. Patients presenting with bull-related injuries to a Southern Indian Emergency Department. Article Google Scholar. Lloyd, M. Matador versus taurus: Bull gore injury. Estudio de 44 heridas por asta de toro.
Google Scholar. Spiotta, A. Neurosurgical considerations after bull goring during festivities in Spain and Latin America. Neurosurgery 69 2 , — Reglamento Taurino. Vaquero, C. Because the sight of a wounded bull desperately trying to retreat from the ring would ruin the image of the "sport," bulls are bred to return to the torture repeatedly and appear to be a wild and vicious challenge to the matador.
While its exact origins are not known, bullfighting is believed to have emerged in connection with ancient fertility rites. In , Pope Pius V decreed that "exhibitions of tortured beasts or bulls is contrary to Christian duty and piety.
In , bullfighting began to assume its present state when Francisco Romero invented a stick with a red cloth suspended from the end, which he used to tease and torment the bulls. Today's bullfighting maneuvers became defined in the s and have changed little since.
Recent polls of Spanish citizens show they are not particularly interested in attending bullfights. But tourists' money keeps bullfight profiteers in business. If you are planning to visit a country that permits or encourages bullfighting, please tell your travel agent you are opposed to animal cruelty in any form. Many tourist resorts are building bullfight arenas as part of their "recreation" facilities; refuse to stay at such a resort, and write a letter to the owner explaining why you will not stay there.
Instead, visit the resort town of Tossa de Mar, which was the first town in Spain to ban bullfights and related advertising. Tell others the facts about bullfighting and urge them to protest as well. When tourists stop attending bullfights, profiteers will stop the cruelty. Bloody or bloodless, bullfighting is a senseless, degrading spectacle that has no place in a civilized society. World Animal Foundation. Foundation Shop Adopt An Animal.
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