Luxury Tour Company Drops Itineraries That Include Spain’s Running Of The Bulls

Based in Florida, luxury tour company Palace Tours has stopped selling itineraries that include Pamplona’s Running of the Bulls. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) announced that tickets will no longer be available for the controversial event in Spain on the tour company’s website.

While the Running of the Bulls is currently listed on the tour operator’s website, no tour dates are currently listed – the message reads, “No Tours found with matching criteria.”

PETA’s petition against the Running of the Bulls

According to PETA, the decision came after Palace Tours heard from “more than 60,000 of [PETA’s] supporters” who were opposed to the blood-thirsty event. On its website, the animal welfare organization issued a statement on the decision, writing, “Palace Tours did the right thing by dropping ticket sales.”

PETA Executive Vice President, Tracy Reiman, said in a statement:

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.

Why is the event so controversial?

Officially dubbed the San Fermin Festival, the Running of the Bulls is held annually in Pamplona in the Navarra region of Spain. During the event, bulls are chased by crowds dressed in red and white, known as Vaquillas, through the city streets until they are herded into the bullring. Once there, lances are driven into the stressed bull’s back, inflicting acute pain.

Once the bull becomes weak from blood loss, a matador enters the bull ring and tries to kill the animal while plunging a sword into its lungs. Meanwhile, the animal may be paralyzed, but still conscious, as his ears or tail are cut off and presented to the Matador as a trophy. The bull’s body is then dragged from the arena.

During the event, some runners are occasionally wounded by the bulls, but this cannot be compared to the torture suffered by the animals.

Protests against the Running of the Bulls

PETA is not the only organization protesting over the festival, as it often teams up with the Spanish NGO, AnimalNaturalis. Moreover, the practice of bullfighting is also highly controversial on its own.

Protesters against the Running of the Bulls in Pamplonahttps://t.co/cX1wfd7UuS pic.twitter.com/2Jhfl6Hoar

— Anne Sewell (@anners2008) July 17, 2024

In a 2022 report from Associated Press, Chelsea Monroe, PETA senior digital campaign officer said:

Bullfighting is the long ritualized execution of bulls and many tourists who come to the bull-runs don’t actually realize that the same bulls they’re running down a couple of streets with are later killed in the bullring that day.

“They’re stabbed over and over again for 20 minutes until they’re dead,” said Monroe. “We want the tourists to know that their money is supporting this really cruel industry.”

However, it was also reported that protests against the annual event, which is held each July, have had no impact on tourists’ enthusiasm for the spectacle. During the San Fermin Festival, Pamplona’s population of 200,000 residents swells to some 1 million as travelers from around the world take part in the nine-day Running of the Bulls festival.

History of the San Fermin Festival

The bull running festival is dedicated to Pamplona’s patron saint San Fermin and is believed to date back to the 16th century. Each day of the festival features an early morning “encierro” (confinement), in which thousands of people run crazily to avoid six bulls as they charge along the narrow, cobblestoned street to Pamplona’s bullring. The bulls are then invariably killed in bullfights each afternoon during the festival.

Meanwhile, bullfighting continues to be popular in Spain, but the movement against it has gained significant momentum in recent years. Moreover, it turns out Palace Tours isn’t the first company to drop related activities or tour offerings that involve animal cruelty. Reportedly Booking.com, Airbnb and The Travel Corporation have all removed captive wildlife venues from their offerings in recent years.

Readers, have any of you attended the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain? What is your reaction to the cruel festival? Let us know by dropping a comment below.

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