A summer of fiestas in which a man was killed, several were gored and animals were tormented or slain has lent strength to allegations that some of Spain's traditional festivals are barbaric.
"This has been a horrible year; the regulations are being totally ignored," said Consuelo Polo of the National Association for the Defense of Animals.A national law bans the use in fiestas of any animals except bulls and cows, which are considered essential to the rituals, but it has been applied by only five of the country's 17 regional governments.
Although regulations protecting both human and animal participants in fiestas are strict on paper, few appear to be enforced.
At some fiestas, people stick balls of tar in the tips of bulls' horns and set them afire. At others, horsemen tear the heads from geese suspended by the feet from ropes.
Julio Caro Baroja, an anthropologist, said the rituals were born in the turbulent years after Jews and Muslims were expelled from Spain at the end of the 15th century. According to Caro, the animals assumed the role of the enemies of pure, Roman Catholic Spain.
Most criticism from the press and animal-rights activists is directed at the running of bulls and cow-baiting.