The Ox Spree is a ritual practiced in Florianópolis, which consists in releasing an ox in the streets and provoking it, causing the animal to run behind the people who participate. The animal becomes exhausted, is attacked and beaten, and often ends up injured and dead. Sometimes they are sacrificed days after the “play". The practice has been considered a crime in Brazil since 1998, but it still happens on the sly. Practitioners justify it as a cultural heritage, while animal rights groups find it cruel and degrading.