The jallikattu event held on Pongal day at Avaniapuram here saw a bull, which ran amok out of fear after being chased by onlookers, hit a bus and succumb to injuries on the main road.
Other bulls that panicked also ran from the jallikattu area onto the main road amid flowing traffic.
The event, which was poorly organised, saw close to 50 people suffering injuries. A wooden gallery came down due to overcrowding injuring many spectators. Four bullfighters were seriously injured and are undergoing treatment at Government Rajaji Hospital.
Activists of the Animal Welfare Board of India claimed that the bull died following a head-on collision with a moving passenger bus.
They blamed the absence of a contained collection area for the bulls for the incident and alleged that it was a violation of the High Court guidelines regulating jallikattu.
Animal Welfare Board inspectors said that no veterinarians could be found at the scene of the death and they had sent a report stating that cruelties such as a person biting the tail of a bull, others poking the animals with knives and twisting their tailbones and organisers poking and beating animals with wooden sticks, were found during the event.
Other Supreme Court guidelines regulating jallikattu were flouted since the double barricade around the arena was not complete and did not meet the eight-foot height requirement.
PETA plea
The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) appealed to the Chief Minister to ban jallikattu since it put both the lives of animals and humans at risk.
PETA campaigner Bhuvaneshwari Gupta said in a statement that the bull which died at Avaniapuram was so terrified that it ran out of fear and was hit by the bus.
PETA alleged that the terrified bulls were chased, kicked, punched, jumped on, dragged to the ground and otherwise subjected tormented – acts that constitute a violation of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.
