A Spanish town has come under fire for alleged animal cruelty after activists released a video showing men fighting small calves less than a year old as if they were full-grown bulls.
The excruciating video shows one man sticking barbed darts known as banderillas in a calf’s back, causing the animal to low with pain.
“We have never seen such cruelty at a bullfighting festival,” said representatives of Spain’s animal rights party Pacma, which posted the footage.
Other images show men aping professional matadors by goading calves with capes, making the clumsy young animals stumble and fall before they have swords stuck between their shoulder blades. The calves shown taking part in the August festival in Valmojado, a town near Toledo, are so small that the swords can be seen to pass right through the young bulls’ torsos.
The town, located southwest of Madrid, issued a statement on Thursday defending the spectacle as a legitimate part of Spain's bullfighting culture. It said the video had been manipulated and misrepresented the calf event earlier this month.
The town protested the barrage of insults it says it and its residents have received since the video was posted this week.
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