Locally Based Travel Company Ends ‘Running of the Bulls’ Promos After Appeal From PETA

For Immediate Release:
July 16, 2024

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

After learning from PETA that dozens of bulls are tormented, stabbed, and slaughtered in front of jeering crowds during the Running of the Bulls at Spain’s annual festival of San Fermín and hearing from more than 60,000 of the group’s supporters, luxury travel company Palace Tours stopped selling tickets for itineraries that include the cruel and violent spectacle.

“Palace Tours did the right thing by dropping ticket sales connected to this bloodbath for bulls,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Global support for Spain’s gory spectacle is at an all-time low, and PETA is calling on other travel companies to follow Palace Tours’ lead.”

During the Running of the Bulls, confused, terrified bulls are chased by drunken crowds through Pamplona’s streets and herded into the bullring, where assailants drive lances into each bull’s back and neck before others plunge banderillas—sticks with a harpoon point on one end—into his back, inflicting acute pain. Eventually, when the bull becomes weak from blood loss, a matador appears and attempts to kill the animal by plunging a sword into his lungs or, if that fails, cutting his spinal cord with a knife. The bull may be paralyzed but still conscious as his ears or tail are cut off and presented to the matador as a trophy and his body is dragged from the arena.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.