‘Smart’ bull gets stuck into female bullfighter and two others in Mexico

LET’S agree: bullfighting is bad and anyone who enjoys it should feel bad. And now a ‘very smart’ bull is fighting back.

Smart bull turns tables on fighter

KARLA Sanchez San Martin, one of Mexico’s few female bullfighters, vowed Tuesday to return to the ring by mid-January, two days after she and several others were gored by what she said was a “very smart” bull.

The 26-year-old bullfighter, who fights under the stage name of “Karla de los Angeles,” suffered a pair of gashes to the thigh and buttock when she was gored twice by the 495-kilogram bull Gamusino.

“From almost the beginning, he was hunting me,” de los Angeles said from the hospital room where she was recovering from a 24cm gash to the thigh and 15cm slash to the buttock.

De los Angeles was going in for the kill when the bull lifted his head, caught her with a horn and tossed her into the air. Bandaged up, de los Angeles re-entered the ring to finish off the bull.

“But the bull had already learned,” she said, noting he held his head high, making it hard for her to drive the sword in.

The 26-year-old says she is determined to return to the ring, two days after she and several others were gored by what she described as a "very smart" bull. (AP Photo/Gabino Acevedo, Cuartoscuro.com)

He caught her a second time with a lifted horn and tossed her to the dirt, goring her again.

A group of four bullfighters’ assistants rushed in to carry off the wounded matador, but the bull wasn’t done yet.

He chased and gored one of the assistants carrying de los Angeles, and broke the ribs of another.

Another bull in Sunday’s fight leapt over the ring wall, crushing a spectator’s face. Another man, identified as a bull breeder, also suffered injuries to his hand.

None of the injuries were considered life-threatening.

“It was one of those afternoons where the accidents happened one after the other, that leaves a bad taste in the mouths of those in the ring and the stands,” the Plaza Mexico bull ring wrote in an article on its website.

De los Angeles said of the wounds, “the truth is, right now it hurts a little bit” but “this is not going to discourage me.”

She said she has a fight on January 18, “and I’m going to be there.”