A clip of a bull lashed to a flat’s railing has set local social media on fire in Fuengirola, hours after the town’s Romeria in honour of the Virgin of the Rosario left the parish church.

Fuengirolasequeja posted the footage. Viewers saw a working ox standing by a metal fence, looking lonely, and comment threads filled with complaints about how the animal was being treated.

Town hall and police call it a planned stop (honestly)

Fuengirola Town Hall and Local Police sources told 101TV nothing irregular had happened. That stretch, running parallel to Calle Cordoba, is the agreed dawn meeting point where oxen are usually hitched to the floats before the pilgrimage leaves town. The trouble is, no one was with it.

Officers were close by, those sources said, so no incident and no risk developed. What the camera caught, they added, was a brief, scheduled pause: “a matter of minutes.”

Sunday’s route is the usual one. After the 10am pilgrims’ mass at the Rosario parish, a replica of the Virgin travels on an ox-drawn cart from Plaza de la Constitucion toward Parque El Esparragal in Mijas. Riders, decorated waggons and walkers follow. Return is due from about 7pm.

Why the clip travelled so fast

Ox carts still open this romeria every year. Many locals treat that as an ordinary Andalucian custom. Others see a huge animal with horns parked against a residential fence and want it gone from busy streets. Spanish pet rules often leave working oxen in a different legal box, which is why these videos spark heat even when councils say the stop was brief and watched.

This row is not quite in the August carriage crash category in Plaza de la Constitucion, when a horse bolted in high heat and two women were hurt. That smash reopened the Costa del Sol argument over tourist calesas.  Fuengirola’s big week, the Feria del Rosario, runs 6 to 12 October. EWN’s 2026 feria guide has concerts and street times. Last weekend’s Fuengirola a Caballo already put horses back in the same central streets.

No injury, no fine and no PACMA filing has been published for this ox. And no tipsy tourists stumbled upon it, thankfully. Officials say the animal was where it was meant to be. Online, plenty of people still want working beasts kept off railings in a packed resort town. Where the owners of the animal were at the time is up for debate.