Campaigners up in arms over ‘torture’ of bulls in Guadalajara

SILVIA BARQUERO, president of animal rights political party PACMA, plus several high-ranking members of her team, have filed an official complaint with the Junta de Castilla-La Mancha in Guadalajara in which they denounce four separate municipalities for “serious irregularities and systematic mistreatment of animals.”

The party is incensed by activities in the towns of Jadraque, Romancos, Malaga de Fresno and Yunquera de Henarez, where bulls are “stoned, beaten and harassed with all kinds of motor vehicles, including cars, quads, motorcycles and tractors, and the authorities have failed to act against this cruel mistreatment which PACMA has spent years documenting.”

PACMA have made a short film depicting the barbaric ‘sport’, which shows hundreds of people gathering “with alcoholic beverages and you can see they are drunk, and this is prohibited by law, which states that anyone under the influence of any type of drug or narcotic cannot participate in bullfighting.”

Barquero has requested an urgent meeting with the Ministers of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Development, Francisco Martínez Arroyo, and Finance and Public Administration, Juan Alfonso Ruiz Molina.

The events known as ‘encierros’ can apparently last up to three hours, and involve closing one or more bulls within a fenced area before the villagers torment them with vehicles, spears, capes and other items until the animal is too exhausted to continue, at which point it is killed.

They also throw stones at the animals, and the encounters attract many spectators.

The PACMA video reveals that over 100 events of this kind take place in 70 villages in Guadalajara, the majority of which have less than 1,000 residents.

According to Baquero, the Guardia Civil are often present but do nothing to enforce the law.

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