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MARCH 2005

13 killed, 350 injured in Indian bull events

ALANGANALLUR—At least 13 people were killed and more than 350 injured during the third weekend in January 2005 at traditional “Jallikattu” bullfights and bullrunning events held around Tamil Nadu state, India, to celebrate Pongal, a Hindu holiday.

“Jallikattu is held at temples,” explained Justin Huggler of the London Independent. “At the most famous, at Alanganallur, the spectacle began with young men competing to grab a gold chain tied around horns of the first bull.

“After that, 500 bulls were released into the crowd, as at Pamplona,” in the most famous Spanish bullrunning event. “But in Pamplona the crowd runs,” Huggler continued. “In Tamil Nadu they compete with each other to try to bring the bulls under control.

“Unlike in Spanish bullfighting, the bulls are not killed. It would be unacceptable for the competitors to kill or try to inflict wounds on them. But this has not prevented animal rights activists from objecting as there have been accidental deaths of bulls over the years. The bulls are also said to be given alcohol before the fight. It is highly probable that many of the competitors are in a similar state.”

Either three or four men were reportedly killed at Alanganallur, where more than 200 were injured, 50 seriously. Two men were killed, and 64 were injured, three of them seriously, at Seeravayal. The fates of the bulls were not reported.

Legal actions separately filed by the Visakha SPCA and PETA apparently discouraged similar events in Andrha Pradesh and Assam, respectively.

Bullfights, bull runs, and ritual abandonment of bull calves as temple offerings, a leading Visakha SPCA concern, all serve to dispose of surplus bulls born as result of milk production.

India and the U.S. produce almost the same amount of milk per year, but India births 35 million calves to get that volume, while the U.S. births only nine million. The difference is partly because U.S. cows are about three times as productive, on average, and partly because U.S. dairy farmers make more use of embryo transplants and sperm-sorting to ensure that only female calves are born to dairy cows.