Victory! Bull Run Is Run Out of California

As the result of a lawsuit brought by PETA and the Animal Legal Defense Fund, 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, which prohibits causing bulls unnecessary suffering as well as 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 be the only one ever to be held in California.

During the Great Bull Run events, organizers send as many as three dozen bulls barreling down a narrow track at up to 35 miles per hour chasing participants—many primed with 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.

What You Can Do

Let us know right away if you hear that one of these events is being planned in your area.