What Happens During the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona
Every year, a barbaric bloodbath takes place at the San Fermín festival in Pamplona, Spain – and most people are totally unaware of it. Many of the tourists who visit the city during the Pamplona bull run don’t realise that the same bulls who slip and slide down the cobbled streets during the bull runs are later tortured to death in the bullring. Altogether, across the entire San Fermín festival, at least 60 bulls are barbarically stabbed to death. This is their story:
The Run
During the annual Running of the Bulls at the San Fermín festival, the organisers imprison bulls and steers in crowded enclosures and then release them onto the streets.
Panic-stricken, the bulls herd together to find safety with the steers, who have been trained to move the herd towards the bullring while a terrifying mob of runners (most of them tourists) chases them.
After being chased about 800 metres uphill through the narrow streets, the bulls are corralled into the bullring. They’re kept here ahead of the evening bullfights, which, unbeknownst to many participating in the run, will result in a violent death for every single one of them.
The Bullfight
The cruelty described below is not unique to the San Fermín festival. Thousands of bulls endured this horror in Spanish bullrings last year.
A typical Spanish bullfight (a misnomer if ever there was one, as the bull has no chance of “winning” or coming out alive) starts when the bull enters the arena and the bullfighters push the bull to exhaustion, making him run from one end of the arena to the other.
Next a man on a blindfolded horse enters the arena. He drives a lance into the bull’s back. The blood loss is meant to weaken the bull as more men enter on foot and proceed to plunge banderillas – sticks with a harpoon point on one end – into the bull’s upper back, causing him acute pain whenever he turns his head.
The Execution
When the bull is close to death from the blood loss and the relentless harassment, the matador (which literally means “killer”) makes his final appearance. After provoking a few charges from the exhausted bull, he aims to kill him by stabbing him between the shoulder blades and through the heart with a sword.
If the bull doesn’t die straight away, the matador will use a dagger or another weapon to sever his spinal cord and finally kill him.
Many people who attend bullfights are horrified by what they see. By that point, though, it’s too late: the bullfighting industry has already pocketed the money, and the bull has endured a torturous, ritualistic death that no amount of remorse can undo. The only way to shut down this abusive industry is by refusing to support it in any way.
PETA Protests at Running of the Bulls
In the summer of 2026, PETA supporters will once again be joining local animal defenders from Spanish animal protection group AnimaNaturalis to protest the Pamplona bullfights.
The actions started in 2002, when a group of nude activists ran through the winding streets holding up signs reading, “Stop the Bloody Bullfight.”
Find more photos and information on PETA’s actions in Pamplona here:
What You Can Do for Bulls
Please urge the mayor of Pamplona to end the Running of the Bulls and subsequent bullfights during the San Fermín festival immediately.
Year after year, more Spanish people express their opposition to cruel bullfights, and fewer and fewer take place. A 2025 Spanish study found that 8 in 10 Spaniards oppose bullfighting, and 72% of young people aged 18–24 see it as a relic that should be left in the past.
Please, don’t contribute to the torture and killing of these senstitive animals – stay away from the San Fermín festival. And please share this feature on social media to tell your friends and family about the reality of bullfights and the Running of the Bulls.
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