Farra Do Boi

Farra Do Boi is a horrifying annual animal cruelty festival that takes place in Brazil. It begins in February and lasts all the way until easter day. (April 4) During this event, which still takes place today, oxen are brutally tortured and slaughtered “just for the fun of it.”

Before the start of the festival, the oxen are starved, with food and water held tantalizingly close, but just out of their reach. While this may sound horrific on its own, the festival itself is where the horror really starts. Once it begins, the poor oxen are beaten, punched, kicked, stabbed, chased, and attacked by intoxicated villagers. The villagers use sticks, stones, knives, whips, bamboo lances, ropes, and really anything they can get their hands on to deliver as much pain as they possibly can to the oxen. After all of this, the oxen’s eyes are rubbed with hot pepper and then consequently gouged out. For good measure, the villagers also hack of their tails, break their bones, and even set some of them on fire. Those who survive the initial torture are killed and eaten, while even the “lucky” oxen that escape and survive end up drowning soon after.

Farra Do Boi was outlawed by the Brazilian government in 1997. While this may initially sound like good news, officials have completely failed to enforce the ban. The name of the festival was merely changed to Brincadeira Do Boi as a way to circumvent the ban. This terrifying event of animal cruelty still goes on year in, year out in our modern world today.