Victory: Dangerous and Cruel Bull Run Vows Never to Return to California
‘The Great Bull Run’ Settles Animal-Protection Groups’ Lawsuit Alleging Violation of California Laws
For Immediate Release:
March 10, 2015
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
As the result of a lawsuit filed by national nonprofits PETA and the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), the Pamplona-style Great Bull Run agreed today never to return to the state of California. The lawsuit, which was filed under California’s Unfair Competition Law, alleged that the events—in which panicked bulls chase fleeing runners—violate the state’s cruelty-to-animals law that prohibits causing bulls unnecessary suffering, worrying bulls, and staging bloodless bullfights or similar exhibitions. The settlement means that last year’s Great Bull Run in Alameda (after which one runner was hospitalized with a concussion and bruises) will have been the only one ever to be held in California.
“The Great Bull Run is as dangerous as it is senselessly cruel,” says PETA Foundation Deputy General Counsel Delcianna Winders. “PETA and ALDF’s victory means that bulls will be spared a stressful cross-country trip from Kentucky to California, where they’ll never again be terrorized for ‘fun.’”
“The Great Bull Run is a disgrace wherever it occurs—but that will never again be in the state of California,” says ALDF Executive Director Stephen Wells. “We will continue to push for this ridiculous spectacle to be shut down across the country.”
During the Great Bull Run events, organizers send as many as three dozen panicked bulls barreling down a narrow track at up to 35 miles per hour, chasing participants—many of whom have been drinking alcohol. Organizers attempted to hold events in Los Angeles, Lake Elsinore, and Temecula last year, but local officials refused to issue the requisite permits out of concern for public health and safety.
The ALDF and PETA were represented by in-house counsel as well as Corey Evans of the law firm Evans & Page.
