Priest Receives PETA U.K. Award for Condemning Cruel Bullfights

For Immediate Release:
October 2, 2025

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

At a special event in London celebrating PETA’s ground-breaking victories for animals over the last 45 years, the organization’s founder Ingrid Newkirk presented Fr Terry Martin, a Catholic priest who serves the Parish of Worthing and Lancing, England with PETA U.K.’s Guiding Light Award in recognition of his leadership in urging the Roman Catholic Church to prevent its priests from attending and officiating at bullfights, and allowing the hideously cruel spectacle to be performed “in honor” of Catholic saints.

Father Martin is the embodiment of PETA U.K.’s event theme about inspiring change in an ever-changing world. Among his many compassionate actions for animals, he has appeared in a dramatic full-page advert in the leading international Catholic journal, The Tablet, calling out bullfighting as animal torture; he joined priests from France and Canada to send a letter to Pope Francis asking him to condemn bullfighting; and he published an op-ed in the Catholic Herald pointing out that terrorizing and killing vulnerable animals is contrary to Christ’s teachings of mercy and compassion.

“Father Martin fearlessly practises what he preaches, from his advocacy for persecuted bulls who are put to death after great torment in the name of the Church to his decision to stop eating animals years ago,” says PETA Founder Ingrid Newkirk. “He is truly a shining example of how we should live on this Earth, speaking up to defend those powerless to defend themselves.”

“I was honored to be a voice, speaking out to the Church and, in particular, to the Pope, to end the savage cruelty of bullfighting in Catholic (and other) countries,” said Father Terry Martin, at the event on Saturday. “As a priest, as a Catholic, as a Christian, it continually deeply troubles me that the Church is generally agonizingly slow to condemn the speciesism so sadly evident in Christian circles.”

He concluded his speech by saying, “Like us all, I refuse to be discouraged, I refuse to give up, and I choose to remain a voice for the voiceless. In that spirit, and with immense gratitude, I accept this unexpected award, which it is a real honor to receive.”

Every year, tens of thousands of bulls are slaughtered in bullfighting festivals around the world, many of which are held in honor of Catholic saints. During these events, assailants on horses drive lances into a bull’s back and neck, then a matador 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. Pope Francis wrote in his encyclical Laudato si’, “Every act of cruelty towards any creature is ‘contrary to human dignity.’” Now, PETA is urging Pope Leo XIV to take a stand against bullfighting.

PETA—whose motto reads, “Animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any way”—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 PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.