Thursday, January 06, 2011

Bulls injure 48 amateur matadors in Colombia

Almost 50 amateur matadors have been injured during a week-long bullfighting festival in Colombia known as Corralejas. Every January, hundreds of amateur bull-fighters jump into the arena with the 1,000-pound bulls in an attempt to show-off their matador skills.

The event takes place in the state of Sucre over six days and locals claim that on average 20 participants die every year. That statistic has done little to put off the would-be matadors though, as the festival has taken place now for over 150 years.


YouTube link.

While the amateur bull-fighters appear almost destined to end the week with some form of injury, the bulls all survive. Unlike traditional bullfighting, at Corralejas matadors are not allowed to kill the bulls.

Footage of this year’s festival highlights the chaotic nature of the festival, with participants madly running across the arena and antagonising the bulls. One man in particular receives the full force of a bull’s anger.

4 comments:

Brixter said...

Wow, I was gonna post a nasty comment till I read that the matadors are not allowed to kill the bulls. This one's cool :)

cath said...

Not sure that it's cool, exactly. I don't agree with traditional bullfighting in which bulls are tortured and killed for sport. But this thing where people are entertained by others who court injury and death by teasing bulls... well, that's rather sadistic, no?

Anonymous said...

This is great. Our evolutionary tree thins itself!

Ratz said...

Anonymous: Self-pruning tree!