PETA Billboards Call for Next Pope to Denounce Bullfights
For Immediate Release:
May 7, 2025
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
As the Conclave deliberates over who will become the next Pope, PETA’s UK entity is sending a thoughtful message to remind that Pope Francis’ compassionate legacy should be honored by encouraging his successor to speak out against cruel bullfights; Vatican insiders believe that Pope Francis was close to a denouncement of any involvement in these archaic “entertainments.” The “Don’t Let His Legacy Go Up in Smoke” appeal, part of PETA’s campaign calling on the Catholic Church to cut its ties to bullfighting, is displayed on 100 pedestrian billboards around Rome and near the Vatican and is the subject of prayers by members of PETA LAMBS, PETA’s religious outreach division.
“Our hope is that Pope Francis’ successor will honor his message of respect for all by condemning the torture of bulls during unholy bullfights,” says PETA Europe Vice President Mimi Bekhechi. “We believe Pope Francis would have done it himself, given more time, knowing that the Catholic Church should not be tied to the torture of God’s creatures.”
Every year, tens of thousands of bulls are slaughtered in bullfighting festivals around the world, held in honour 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 the Vatican should unequivocally condemn.
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.
