There’s no shortage of well-documented blood sports both before and during the Christian era. I know of few as shocking as bogus’s example (which was, incidentally, new to me), but one that comes close might be the medieval French practice of players tying a cat to a tree, restraining their own hands, and proceeding to batter the animal to death with their heads. This was mentioned in Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror; Google also turns up a reference here.
I suppose there’s something about cats that lends itself to shock value.
There’s no shortage of well-documented blood sports both before and during the Christian era. I know of few as shocking as bogus’s example (which was, incidentally, new to me), but one that comes close might be the medieval French practice of players tying a cat to a tree, restraining their own hands, and proceeding to batter the animal to death with their heads. This was mentioned in Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror; Google also turns up a reference here.
I suppose there’s something about cats that lends itself to shock value.