Random Barbaric Festivals That Should Be Banned For What They Do To Animals (14 items)

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  (#1) Grindadráp In The Faroe Islands

  An island tradition known to turn the ocean red with blood, Grindadráp is a festival that uses boats to round up unsuspecting, migrating whales and herd them to shore - where they eventually meet their merciless slaughter. As the pods become stranded ashore, the attendees grab them, bring them ashore, and slice their throats.

  While conservation societies attempt to prevent locals from participating in the slaughter, the tradition is protected by law. Activists protesting the bloody "festivities" have been arrested and their boats confiscated.
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  (#2) Quail Catapulting In Valencia, Spain

  In this horrific quail catapulting tradition, baby quails are fired up into the air via cannon, then promptly shot down - all for the fun of it. Thousands of quails are bred for the sole purpose of being fired from a cannon and shot down with a shotgun.

  Germany, who has a large amount tourists who travel to the destination, has reached out to Spain's Queen Sofia on the matter, but she refused to address the primitive and cruel sport.
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  (#3) The Yulin Dog Festival In China

  This annual celebration held in Yulin, China, celebrates indulgence in both dog meat and fruity lychees. Referred to as the "Lychee and Dog Meat Festival," dogs are caged, killed, hung from meat hooks, and served to festival-goers. This traditional event has become a controversial hub for scuffles between animal-rights activists and vendors.

  While the slaughter of dogs in public was banned in 2016, the festival still continues and the sale of dog meat is not illegal in China.
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  (#4) Deopokhari Festival In Khokana, Nepal

  A festival held in Nepal is suited for true barbarians. The Deopokhari Festival is celebrated by ripping a live goat to shreds with their bare hands while the participants beat, bite, and pull the goat until its eventual death. The one to kill the goat gets to lead the celebration the next year. 

  While this tradition is over 900 years old, the Animal Welfare Network Nepal has gained international support for the opposition of the festival, claiming that the barbaric sacrifice of this animal is an act of cruelty.
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  (#5) The Turkey Drop in Yellville, Arkansas

  During the Turkey Trot festival in Yellville, Arkansas, a real live turkey is thrown from an airplane like a soaring projectile. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) even got involved in this one but, surprisingly enough, the turkeys aren't actually considered to be projectiles.

  Turkeys have been flying from airplanes in Yellville for 50 years, and they have no intentions to stop this horrifying activity any time soon.
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  (#6) Kots Kaal Pato In Mexico

  The phrase/festival name "kots kaal pato" translates to the English phrase "strangle the duck." During the festivities, what happens is essentially the same as what happens with piñatas, except these toys are not stuffed with candy, they are stuffed with live animals. Iguanas and opossums are packed in, then beaten out they exact same way a pinata would be. The animals who escape alive are murdered by the festival-goers.

  Afterwards, a duck is strung up on a wooden mast so that people can pile on top of each other to rip it down - the one to catch it and rip its head off wins. With the help of persistent animal rights and government groups, the tradition was banned April 23, 2016.
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  (#7) Umkhosi Ukweshwama Festival In South Africa

  The First Fruits Festival is a revived Zulu festival where unarmed young men surround a bull and prove their manhood by killing in various ways - gouging its eyes out, beating it, whatever it takes to take the bull down. Because of the slow torture of the animal involved, where it can take over 20 minutes to die, animal rights activists have brought the event to court on accounts of animal cruelty.

  However, due to the event being a traditional event which is protected by cultural laws, the festival continues.
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  (#8) Goose-Pulling In Lekeitio, Spain

  On The Day of the Geese, a greased goose is strung up by its neck with a rope out in the middle of the water, and festival participants, jump, grab on to this goose, and hang on for dear life while they're continuously bounced into the water like a sadistic bungie chord. The goal of the person hanging on is to decapitate the goose by whatever means possible while being sprung up and down in the water. Using a number of geese, participants are judged on how quickly they can rip the head off. 

  This used to take place with live geese, until it was ended by pressure from animal rights activists in 2005. The current event uses geese that have been humanely killed, however, the geese are not eaten.
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  (#9) The Pero Palo Festival In Villanueva De La Vera, Spain

  During the festivities of the Pero Palo Festival, drunken and rowdy festival-goers throw a scared and confused donkey out into the street to hit, kick, bash, drag, and torture for their own entertainment. These drunken crowds do everything in their power to fire guns and bang drums so the animal remains terrified.

  The mayor and his team have worked with animal rights activist groups, stating that it's hard for them to completely remove the donkey from the festival, and even harder to maintain a crown of roaringly drunk animal abusers from swarming in on the donkey.
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  (#10) Festival Of The Ox (Farra Do Boi) In Brazil

  Brazil's Festival of the Ox is no party for these oxen. During this twisted event, the oxen are starved and routinely tortured until their eventual deaths. Drunken villagers mutilate the animals in cruel and inhumane ways, by punching, kicking, beating them - even going as far as to stone them, rub their eyes with hot peppers, and set them on fire. 

  Although outlawed by the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil in 1997, Santa Catarina officials have failed to stop the activities. 
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  (#11) Nem Thuong Pig-Slaughter Festival In Vietnam

  On the sixth day of the new lunar year, a ritualistic slaughter of two terrified pigs is commenced. They are carted out onto a platform and strung on their backs, then bound completely spread-eagle onto their public cutting board. The pigs then die a slow and bloody death by being cut in half with a sword. The Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism has officially condemned this tradition - stating that Vietnam is a country that relies on tourism and trade and demanded the outdated and uncivilized tradition cease.

  Enforcing regulations against the festival came out on February 5, 2016, however, the event organizers still parade around the city with the animals and slaughter the pigs in private.
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  (#12) Krakelingen In Geraardsbergen, Belgium

  A withstanding part of Krakelingen is the slurping down of live fish. Soaked in red wine, the fate of these fish is denounced by animal rights activists as a cruel one, since the fish dies an agonizing death, essentially being thrown into a vat of toxic waste before its consumption.

  While the drinking of fishes hasn't stopped completely, the amount of fish being drank has been reduced to around two dozen, and animal rights campaigners hope to eventually replace the fish with a substitute, such as a fish-shaped marzipan.
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  (#13) Running of the Bulls (San Fermín Fiestas), Spain

  In Pamplona, the Running of the Bulls is a famously long withstanding tradition as part of the nine-day San Fermin fiestas. The bulls are stirred up and incensed before being let loose in the streets. As they set off in a raging panic down the cobblestone streets, festival-goers encourage the frenzy by hitting them and beating the bulls as they run alongside them.

  Afterwards, the bulls are brought into arenas for bull fights, where matadors lead them to their eventual death. Although both people and bulls die during these events, it is still a cultural celebration in 2017.
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  (#14) Rapa Das Bestas In Galicia, Spain

  This summer celebration in Spain is no celebration for the horses involved. Literally tranlsated to "the capture of the beasts," this is an event in which wild horses are herded down from the mountains in the heat, and then wrestled to the ground by fully grown men. The men punch, pull, do whatever they can to take these horses down.

  Once the horses are on the ground, their manes and tails are shaved - if the horse is still young, it is branded. What originally began as a way to clean the horses and keep them free of disease has become a barbaric tourist attraction.

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