200,000 Beg Pope Leo XIV to ‘End the War on Bulls’ With Massive Projection on Apostolic Palace
For Immediate Release:
May 27, 2025
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
As Pope Leo XIV assumes his role, PETA has an urgent message for the new pontiff: cut the Church’s ties to the violent, deadly bullfighting industry. After collecting almost 200,000 signatures from Catholics on PETA entities’ petitions urging his predecessor, Pope Francis, to condemn the cruel bloodsport, PETA last night projected the number in massive letters onto the exterior of the Apostolic Palace, where the papal residence is located. The video of the action is available here.
“Hundreds of thousands of compassionate Catholics around the world have spoken out against the torture of bulls in bullfights, and it’s time for the Church to do the same,” says PETA Europe Vice President Mimi Bekhechi. “PETA entities are calling on Pope Leo XIV to start off his papacy by doing what we believe Pope Francis would have, and denounce the torture and killing of bulls during Catholic celebrations.
Every year, tens of thousands of bulls are slaughtered in bullfighting festivals held in honor of Catholic saints. During these events, assailants on horses drive lances into a bull’s back and neck before others plunge banderillas into his back, inflicting acute pain whenever he turns his head and impairing his range of motion. Eventually, when the bull becomes weak from blood loss, a matador appears and attempts to kill the animal by plunging a sword into his lungs. A knife is used to cut his spinal cord. 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, who was chosen as PETA’s Person of the Year a decade ago, wrote in his encyclical Laudato Si’, “Every act of cruelty towards any creature is contrary to human dignity”. As far back as the 16th century, Pope Pius V—who has since been canonized—banned bullfighting, which he described as “cruel and base spectacles of the devil and not of man” and contrary to “Christian piety and charity”. The doctrine of the Catholic Church clearly states that humans should not “cause animals to suffer or die needlessly,” yet Catholic priests often officiate at religious ceremonies in bullrings and minister to bullfighters in arena chapels—actions that should be unequivocally banned by the Vatican.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—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.
