A 45-year-old man was killed early this morning after being gored and trampled by a bull during a festival in Navajas, Spain. After flaming balls of wax were placed on the bull's horns in a tradition known as "correbous," the man tripped and was quickly brought down by the charging animal.

A ban on bullfighting went into effect in Catalonia on January 1, but a handful of traditional events, including "correbous," were made exempt from the new law. As recently as September, animal rights activists in Spain protested the bizarre exemptions, labeling them as forms of torture equivalent to the banned bullfights.

Today's tragedy highlights the dangerous hypocrisy found in the bill and may prove instrumental in having those exceptions removed. If it does not, we should at least be reminded that animals really, really don't like it when you put flaming balls of wax on their heads.

[Image via AP]