Bull wins fight with drunken Spaniard....

[Monza_dh]

Video here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090710/ap_on_re_eu/eu_spain_running_of_the_bulls_21

Great pics here.My fav is #9:

http://www.boston.com/sports/blogs/bigshots/2009/07/the_san_fermin_festival.html



PAMPLONA, Spain – A charging bull gored a young Spanish man to death Friday at Pamplona's San Fermin festival, the first such fatality in nearly 15 years. Nine others were injured in a particularly dangerous and chaotic chapter of the running of the bulls.

Pamplona officials identified the man as Daniel Jimeno Romero, 27, from Alcala de Henares, outside Madrid. He was on vacation with his parents and girlfriend, who identified him.

The San Fermin festival Web site said Jimeno Romero was gored in the neck and lung during a run in which a rogue bull named Capuchino separated from the pack, which is among the worst things that can happen at Spain's most popular fiesta.

Isolated bulls are more likely to get disoriented and start charging at people.

Photographs showed Jimeno Romero lying on a stretcher moments after the goring, his face and neck stained with blood and his eyes only half-open. An emergency medical worker was leaning over him, applying what appeared to be gauze to his neck wound.

Amateur video broadcast by Spanish TV station Cuatro showed him trying to squeeze feet-first under a wooden fence along the run route when Capuchino got him in the neck.

Three other people were gored, and six people suffered bumps, bruises and other lesser injuries, said Fernando Boneta, director of Virgen del Camino Hospital.

Among the injured was a 61-year-old American who was struck in the chest and had internal bleeding in his lungs. Doctors said he was in intensive care but that his condition was not considered life-threatening. The man was identified by his initials, E.P.S., but his full name was not released.

Also injured in the run was a 20-year-old from London, and a 24-year-old Argentine. Another American, a 63-year-old identified by the initials K.L., injured an elbow.

The festival ends Tuesday, and there was no indication that the remaining bull runs would be canceled because of the death.

The last fatal goring at the running of the bulls was that of 22-year-old American Matthew Tassio in 1995. In 2003, a 63-year-old Spanish man, Fermin Etxeberri, was trampled in the head by a bull and died after spending months in a coma.

Friday's death raises to 15 the toll since record-keeping began in 1924.

Fatalities are relatively rare and when one occurs, it serves as a reminder that amid all the street parties and revelry associated with San Fermin, running with fighting bulls weighing 1,300 pounds (600 kilograms) or more on cobblestone streets packed with people is a life-risking exercise.

This run, the fourth of eight held at San Fermin, was by far the most perilous of this year's festival. The previous three runs were comparatively placid affairs, with no serious injuries.

The six bulls covering the half-mile (850-meter) course with six accompanying steers tend to mind their own business and keep running as long as they stay in a pack. A bull that gets separated is more likely to get frightened and aggressive, and that is what happened Friday.

Capuchino, a brown, 1,130-pound (515-kilogram) specimen, fell early in the run and ended up on its own.

When it reached a stretch right outside the bullring that marks the end of the course, it started charging right and left, and even ran back the wrong way several times. Runners scurried for safety to wooden barriers along the route as the bull attacked. Herders waving sticks tried in vain to guide it into the ring, even yanking on the animal's tail to turn it around.

This went on for a minute and a half, which is a long time at San Fermin.

At one point the bull picked one man up with its horns and flipped him into the air, then kept going after him as he lay curled up on the ground, covering his face. He got up and ran away, and was apparently not seriously hurt.

Jimeno Romero was killed by the same bull at a stretch slightly before this one.

"It was a light bull. Its charges were not particularly strong but it moved very fast from left to right," one of the herders, Humberto Miguel, told The Associated Press. "Of the whole pack, it was the one that gave us the most trouble."

The bulls used in Friday's run, from a ranch called Jandilla, have a reputation for being fierce at San Fermin. They hold the record for the most gorings in a single run — eight, one day in 2004.

The bulls used in the runs face matadors and almost certain death the same afternoon in the Pamplona bullring.

[jriera]

If you don't like the heat stay out of the kitchen ...

Having done it twice (I was much younger and a lot more stupid) and understanding that the only way to do the San Fermin 'properly' is drunk for the duration, I am always amaze the very low number of deaths that happen.

[Mo_Gearhead]

Darwin at work.

Flipping TV channels I sometimes pause at bull riding events ...to watch for a moment and cheer for the bulls.

Cowboy Logic;
Ride Bulls - Meet Nurses

Another favorite, "Money the Hard Way". Four tobacco chewin' hayseeds sit at a card table in the ring, bull is released ...last one sitting wins the $100.

ya-hoooo~!!

[GG Allin]

Could you imagine the lawsuits if they tried that here in the U.S.?

[dtw]

Pruning the gene tree. Superb. We need more, many more, of these activities stateside.

[Monza_dh]

Originally Posted by mbrouder

Could you imagine the lawsuits if they tried that here in the U.S.?

That was the first thing I thought! The promoter, fence manufacturer, bull farmer, evan the newspaper used to hit the bull would all get sued!!

[mike55]

In the pics, it's seems ironic that the tips of the horns of the bulls in the bullring, with professional bullfighters are cutoff, while the bulls running down the streets appear to have EXTRA sharp horns, mowing down the amateurs. Darwin at work for sure......

[m21sniper]

This is the dumbest "tradition" that still occurs in the western world IMO.

[billwagnon]

I would vote for religious snake handling. Running with the bulls looks kinda fun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_handling

[JCF]

Originally Posted by mike55

In the pics, it's seems ironic that the tips of the horns of the bulls in the bullring, with professional bullfighters are cutoff, while the bulls running down the streets appear to have EXTRA sharp horns, mowing down the amateurs. Darwin at work for sure......

If you are referring to the pic of the chap in the chaps - he's a rejoneador. they "fight" the bulls from horses. The horses are very valuable so they take the point off the bulls horns. I will add they are second class bulls , as real fighting bulls are quite valuable also .

In the Big fairs - Sevilla, Madrid and to an extreme in The San Fermin - the bulls the professional matadors face most certainly do not have the horns blunted.
Sometimes they are shaved - which is cheating as the bull still gages its attacks as though the horn has the full length - but they are still sharp and can be, are deadly.

[ski wagen]

Originally Posted by Monza_dh

Great pics here.My fav is #9:

http://www.boston.com/sports/blogs/bigshots/2009/07/the_san_fermin_festival.html

I like the guy in flip-flops in #7 -- if you're going to drunkenly put your life in peril, then no need for closed-toe shoes . . .

[Zef]

Originally Posted by m21sniper

This is the dumbest "tradition" that still occurs in the western world IMO.

It's a stupid tradition, but some more stupid ones still exist on our side of the creek too....!

[pavulon]

Originally Posted by ski wagen

I like the guy in flip-flops in #7 -- if you're going to drunkenly put your life in peril, then no need for closed-toe shoes . . .

Saw that myself....may as well run against the flow....should be a Budweiser "Real men of Genius" commercial.

Here's to you (the late) Mr. Running w/ the Bulls in Flip-flops guy!!!

[JCF]

Don't matter what you wear - a fighting bull is as quick as a cat and can run much faster than a person in nikes.