Spanish Bull Run Festival Cancelled This Year Due To Pandemic - PETA Offers Cash To Ban It For Good

Pamplona City Council announced that it had cancelled the San Fermin bull run festival this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

San Fermin festival is famous for organising 'Running of the bulls' - where bulls run the city's streets before they get killed in bullfights. 

The festival attracts around 1.45 million visitors to the city every year in July.

"The San Fermin festival cannot be an exception. Like the rest of global and national events, it will be suspended. Until we have a vaccine, this is how it will have to be," Ana Elizalde, the mayor deputy of Pamplona, said in a statement.

"This is not the time for pyrotechnics, running with the bulls, bullfighting or parades," she added.

Enrique Maya, the mayor, was tested positive for coronavirus and has been recovering at home.

PETA is now offering the city €250,000 if the city commits to ending the bull run and bullfights forever. 

The group wrote a letter to mayor saying: "The Running of the Bulls and bullfights – in which all the bulls used in the morning runs are killed – are a vestige of a far less enlightened time when people didn't understand that animals feel pain and thought nothing of risking fellow humans' safety. But society has evolved. Today, the vast majority of people around the world are opposed to what goes on at the Running of the Bulls and detest bullfights. More than 125 Spanish towns and cities have recognised that tormenting and butchering bulls for entertainment has no place in the 21st century and have rejected such barbarity. With the bullfighting industry in serious financial trouble and opposition to exploiting animals for entertainment ever-growing, I hope you'll agree that it's time – past time – to add Pamplona to that list. "

PETA suggests that the festival's cruel Running of the Bulls event could be switched to the Running of the Balls or a similar animal-friendly celebration.

"With the bullfighting industry in serious financial trouble and opposition to harming animals for human fun growing ever-louder, Pamplona should seize this opportunity to end this cruel, archaic spectacle," said PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. 

"PETA looks forward to when the San Fermín festival returns post-pandemic as a humane event that everyone, including people who respect animals, can enjoy."

The group's letter to the mayor of Pamplona, is available here. 

The city has not commented on the offer yet.