The Brutal Damage Caused by Bull Goring

Written by Asher Kade
From: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/

Photo: BillGracey

People being gored by bulls' horns is common in Latin America. While the bull is normally docile and easily domesticated, he can also become quite angry and make a turn for the worse. Bullfighting is a commonplace spectacle. Often these animals are provoked or abused in order to get the animals to react violently and thus create a more dramatic scene.

Photo: Monica Ray

Socioeconomically, bulls are the source of entertainment in Latin countries. "Running with the bulls", with all its cultural aspects, happens every year in the summer. Since the 13th century, these festivities (most popular in Spain, though conducted in other places like India) are part of the countries' economic sustainability.

In the US, cowboys who work with cattle, in a practice known as animal husbandry, claim 94% of all of their injuries are caused by the bulls alone. Despite being normally docile, bulls are the most violent and lethal animals a cowboy will face.

Photo: Emilio Labrador

Cattle behavioral issues are also common for police officers all around the world. In India, there is a huge problem with rogue cattle wandering aimlessly about and unattended. There are at least 2,655 illegal dairies in New Delhi alone. These illegal dairies are poorly maintained, lending to disease, corruption, poor management, bad food quality and animal abuse. Many of the 30,000 cattle that roam New Delhi come from these illegal dairies. Locals are attacked when they least expect it by the rogue cattle. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) are now microchipping cattle to be able to identify the owners. Without the microchip, owners face huge fines and/or loss of their cattle, as they are either sold off or killed.

The abdomen, which is usually eye level to the bull, is the most common area to be gored. Even the chest is not gored as often as the abdomen. The abdomen lacks the skeletal protection of the chest, which makes the person susceptible to fatalities. The abdominal walls are sliced open and hemorrhaging begins prodigiously. The bowels end up being spilled out.

Other likely places to be gored by a bull are the vaginal and anal cavities (second most common). Lung punctures and rib fractures can be found in about 4% of cases. The most extensive goring typically takes place on the right side (63%) as many people are right handed and the bull is thus more likely to be stood on their right side. Also, right handed people are more likely to try to protect themselves with their right hand, obviously.

(See pictures of these bull gording injuries.)

Injuries from bull goring are very unique. The horn's long, curved shape with smooth, tapered ends is nature's creative way of protecting the bull from harm's way. Because of the bull's horn size and structure, 25% of all bull horn injuries are fatal.

Photo: Mukta Rani

In most parts of the world, there are no regulations on how to handle the animals when they are used for entertainment purposes. The animals' rights are seldom considered. As mentioned earlier, laws are improving to protect citizens from rogue, loose cattle. But, for the most part, innocent victims of bull horn injuries don't receive justice.

If the bull horns do penetrate the victim's body, the gored individual has a 78% likelihood of dying.

Photo: chikuado

Note in this last video how the spectators in Spain treat the bulls. Witness how the bulls are provoked and abused. Ask yourself: is injuring an animal entertainment? Is witnessing a person being brutally killed a sport? Watch this video and decide for yourself.

All pictures used in this article have received permission to be used by their respective owners.

© Asher Kade

Pamplona runner is gored in the chest by a 1,268lb bull - and survives

By Mail Foreign Service

This is the terrifying moment a Pamplona reveller is tossed into the air and then gored by a rampaging bull.

The man was caught in the chest and legs when the large bull became separated from the pack on the slippery cobblestone streets of Spain's Pamplona.

The bull - a 1,268lb Miura - jerked the runner upward and then rolled him along the ground like a rag doll. Miuras are the largest and most famous of Spain's fighting bulls.

Terrifying: A Miura fighting bull that became separated from the pack gores a runner during the sixth bull run of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona

The reveller was covered in blood and had his trousers torn off during the bull's wild attack.

Screaming out in agony, the man was dragged away by two fellow runners before being rushed to hospital.

The bull initially got a horn caught on a wooden barrier at a bend in the route, slipped and became embroiled in a three-animal pile-up before resuming its gallop.

Bulls are at their most dangerous when the pack splits up, leaving individual animals disoriented and irritated by the large crowds traditionally clad in white, with red bandanna neckerchiefs and cummerbunds.

Mayhem: The reveler is tossed to the ground as the bull's horns rips apart his trousers

Horror: The man's face says it all as the bull rams its horns into him

In other graphic images, one man was gored in the neck during the five-minute run on the sixth day of the running of the bulls at the San Fermin festival.

Three other runners were also gored, while six received medical treatment for bruising.

More...

• British student escapes death after being gored by killer bull at Pamplona festival but one Spanish runner dies
• The horns of death: The bulls are free. All brave drunks are suddenly scared sober. What a stupid way to die

One man was hit hard on the chin and knocked unconscious by a calf inside the bullring after the running of the bulls had finished.

It comes after a 27-year-old man was gored to death on Friday - the first fatality since 1995.

Lucky escape: The man is dragged away by a fellow runner as soon as the bull appears to back off

Spaniard Daniel Jimeno Romero was gored in the upper chest and neck and was declared dead shortly after reaching the hospital.

Hundreds of revelers paid homage to Mr Romero by leaving traditional red neckerchiefs tied to wooden barriers at the spot where a bull gored him fatally in the upper chest and neck.

For more than 100 years thrill-seekers have accompanied the bulls from a pen outside the city walls on a dangerous, daredevil run to the bullring. In the afternoon, the bulls face matadors and almost certain death.

The pack races along the often damp cobblestone course accompanied by six steers, each with a large clanking bell around its neck, whose function is to try to keep the group trotting together.

Dangerous: A runner (right) is gored in the neck by a Miura bull

Treatment: He requires urgent medical attention as blood pours from his nose and neck

The bulls running yesterday belonged to breeder Dolores Aguirre, famed for producing hefty, strong animals. The largest of the six animals weighed in at 1,378 pounds.

Despite the large number of runners and the separation of one bull from the pack, all of Aguirre's animals entered the ring in 2 minutes, 52 seconds, a reasonably fast time.

'I noticed the streets were swollen by a lot of runners,' said Jaime de Vargas, who had dedicated his run to fellow bull aficionado and friend Mr Romero.