It's the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In the case of animal abusers, every so often they get done unto them just as they do. Here are this year's best stories in which the Golden Rule put its game face on: 

Leg photo © iStockphoto.com/Shelly Perry  Shark photo © Getty Images/Digital Vision/Carl Roessler

• What do you get when you attach knives to birds' legs and bet on how quickly one will kill the other? One California man attending a cockfight found out the hard way.
• Ah, España. So much to love—the beaches, the cathedrals, the food, the evisceration of men who insist on tormenting animals who have large, pointy horns …
• Isn't there a saying (and if not, there should be)—when the gun is in someone else's paws, the hunter gets shot?
• If fish had newspapers, the headline for the article about this incident would've been "Shark OK After Angler Attack."
• When a mortally wounded deer uses the last of his strength to kill his attacker, the tragedy at least has a bittersweet ending.

Looks like animal abusers might want to consider a New Year's resolution to adhere to the Golden Rule … or else.

When three European animal advocacy groups arrived to peacefully protest the killing of six young bulls in a bullfighting arena in Rodilhan, France, things quickly got even uglier than a bullfight already is.

While about three dozen members of Comité Radicalement Anti Corrida Europe (of France), Droits des Animaux (also of France), and Animaux en Péril (of Belgium) unfolded banners in the bleachers, 65 more protesters jumped into the arena and chained themselves together in a silent sit-in. They were immediately set upon by both the bullfighters and the spectators. The protesters were viciously kicked, punched, pummelled, dragged by the hair, and blasted with a fire hose. Some spectators in the bleachers stood up and made the bullfighting "kill" gesture—thumbs down. None of the protesters fought back during the 30-minute assault, and some suffered broken bones and contusions. Organizers of the bullfight did nothing to intervene or stop the assault.

Those still clinging to this dying pastime know that it's on the way out. Just last month, Barcelona held its last bullfight.

Please post a link to this blog on your Facebook page and everywhere else you can to expose these matadors and their fans for the violent thugs that they are.

Written by Jennifer O'Connor

It has only been a few days since bullfighting ended in Catalonia, but Spaniards are reportedly already coming up with new ways to keep matadors employed that are a lot less Conan the Barbarian and a lot more Conan O'Brien.

Also in the works: a tournament of bulls' favorite card game …? 

Written by Michelle Sherrow

The last bull has been stabbed to death in Barcelona now that the last scheduled bullfight has taken place in Catalonia, the Spanish region that's widely considered to be bullfighting's birthplace. Faced with nearly empty arenas and growing condemnation of killing bulls for "sport," the ban on this sadistic spectacle officially goes into effect January 1, and bullfighting is on its way out elsewhere as well.

Curious tourists who purchase tickets or those who simply go along with what's included on their travel itinerary are the only ones keeping the fights alive and bulls dying. By the time an appalled spectator rushes out of the arena in horror, the damage has been done—and more bulls will endure an agonizing death as a result.

Travelers to Spain, Mexico, and France can help end the carnage for good by refusing to buy a ticket and letting their travel agents know that they don't want bullfights included on their tour itineraries.

Written by Jennifer O'Connor

I thought living downwind of the reeking refineries in east Houston reflected badly on the oil industry, but that's just a mere annoyance compared to the suffering of bulls at the hands of oil companies in India. That's why one of our friends from PETA India took over the stage at the Oil and Gas Review Summit and International Exhibition in Mumbai to urge India's wealthy oil biz leaders to replace carts drawn by bulls with modern, non-animal forms of transport. The PETA India staffer was dragged out of the conference—chanting "Shame!"

Let's hope that she opened some eyes (and hearts). Most of the bulls used to transport fuel from oil ports to rationing stations in Mumbai are underfed and malnourished and kept in filthy conditions, and many suffer from chronic inflammation, maggot-infested wounds, infections, or intestinal problems. They are forced to work until they are exhausted, pulling heavy loads through all weather extremes.

To learn how you can help end these bullocks' suffering, see PETA India's action alert and please make a donation to Animal Rahat, which was created to make a difference in the lives of working bullocks, donkeys, ponies and horses.

Written by Jeff Mackey

Update: Even though the town has said "No" to this bull run, the organizer is still planning on having the bull run on private land, despite the public outcry calling for the run to be canceled.

Hats off to officials in the Arizona town of Cave Creek for revoking a permit sanctioning a bull run when the organizers failed to procure sufficient insurance coverage. This may be enough to stop the event, since it means that liability for any injuries now becomes the responsibility of the promoter and the owner of the local ranch where the run is supposed to take place.

PETA had contacted the mayor and town council and let them know that modeling an event after Pamplona's annual bull run would be cruel and unsafe. Bulls would be antagonized into racing at breakneck speed, which would put them as well as participants and spectators at risk.

Please thank Cave Creek officials for taking public safety and cruelty to animals seriously.

Written by Jennifer O'Connor

We're spitting mad at people who have been lashing out at animals, but we've saved up some wet, sloppy puppy-dog kisses for those whose compassion is the cat's pajamas.

Chadh | cc by 2.0

• Kisses to Canadian national pet store chain PJ's Pets, which has stopped selling puppies and started promoting adoption. Are you listening, Petland? 
• Hisses to Scripps Research Institute for torturing rats for almost 40 years to develop a vaccine for heroin. Apparently, these experimenters just couldn't say "No."
• Hisses to MMA fighter Brock Lesnar for going on a prairie-dog killing spree. Hey, Brock, why don't you stick with picking on someone your own size?
• Kisses to the Iowa State Fair for including a vegetarian booth, the Veggie Table, in this year's festivities. Yes, they really do have veggie corn dogs on a stick.
• Hisses to South Korean scientists for genetically modifying a dog to glow in the dark, giving new meaning to the term "barking mad."
• Kisses to Food Network for helping to keep sharks in the ocean waves by taking shark meat off the airwaves.
• Hisses to students at New York's Cooper Union High School for using electric currents to make roaches "dance." Why not stick with iPods and leave the arthropods alone?
• Hisses to actor Andrew McCarthy for participating in a bull run. Taunting and harassing bulls isn't pretty, no matter how you color it.

For up-to-the-minute info on what PETA is doing, follow us on Twitter.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

These animals must have listened to Robert F. Kennedy―they didn’t get mad, they got even.

stevedepolo | cc by 2.0

• Maybe Angry Birds was inspired by crows, who remember the faces of people who were mean to them for years―and even get other crows to help retaliate. 
• A cattle rancher was once named "Livestockman of the Year," but after fattening thousands of animals for slaughter, he got a less-than-positive review from one of the animals in his "care."  
• A man caught with massive amounts of lethal puffer fish poison won't be seeing the ocean―or much of anything else―for a very long time.
• At two separate events in which people antagonize and harass bulls for fun, the instigators learned the painful way that when you mess with a bull, you really do get the horns.
• It was eight seconds to gory when a horse tired of being used in the rodeo bluntly told his rider to take a seat in the stands.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

After aggressive campaigning by PETA India—including a lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court of India—the Ministry of Environment and Forests has added bulls to a directive that lists animals (bears, monkeys, tigers, lions and panthers) who are prohibited from being used in "performances." This means that bulls will no longer be tormented in a cruel spectacle called Jallikattu.

Jallikattu takes place in India's Tamil Nadu province, where residents chase and taunt bulls in an attempt to grab money tied to their horns. Bulls have chili peppers rubbed into their eyes and are force-fed alcohol, and their testicles are pinched—all in an effort to get them crazed and frantic. Villagers throw themselves on top of the terrified animals in an effort to "tame" them and claim the prize.
 

 
PETA India's Supreme Court case challenged the Tamil Nadu government's assertion that state law (which allows these cruel contests) supersedes a central (federal) law. PETA India believes that the new directive also outlaws other cruel events, including bullock cart races and bullfights, and the group will be taking action to make sure that they are stopped. Please thank the minister responsible for protecting bulls, Mr. Jairam Ramesh.

In another chapter in PETA India's fight for bullocks, a "public interest litigation" has been filed in Bombay High Court asking for a directive to enforce an existing ban against the use of bullocks to haul oversized kerosene carts for oil companies.

Please urge the ministry to continue treating animal issues with the seriousness that they deserve.

Written by Jennifer O'Connor

At least 41 people suffered injuries during Pamplona's San Fermin festival this year. One runner from Pamplona remains in the hospital after he was gored so deeply that his diaphragm ruptured. An Australian teenager fractured three vertebrae, and an Australian man was gored in the leg, piercing his femoral artery, after he taunted a bull. Then there was the man who thought it was a good idea to run naked at a bull while waving a red handkerchief. Not surprisingly, he wound up on the wrong end of a horn.

While no people were killed in this year's runs, the bulls didn't fare as well. After being run through the streets to the bullring, they were all killed in bullfights.  
 

flydime/cc by 2.0

 
Instead of killing bulls, we much prefer the version of the run cooked up by roller derby groups, in which roller girls wearing horned hats and wielding Nerf weaponry chase participants through the streets in a running of bullies. Thrill-seekers can experience a festive, exhilarating chase that doesn't end at the hospital or the bullring.
 

Roller girls in New Orleans show that the notion that abusing bulls is fun is, well, bull.

 
Written by Michelle Sherrow