Illegal Bullfight in Mexico Cancelled After PETA Latino Campaign, Bulls Spared!
Bullfighting isn’t “macho”—and Mexico City’s men agree. In PETA Latino’s powerful new video, we asked men all over the city—which is home to the world’s largest bullfighting ring—about their opinions on the violent spectacle. Their responses? Bullfighting is “a cruel and inhumane act” and “an atrocity.” Far from being a show of strength, bullfighting is exposed for what it truly is: torturing animals for “entertainment.”
In the video, our interviewees recoiled and winced as they were shown footage of humans mutilating and tormenting bulls in the ring. “It doesn’t make sense to enjoy the suffering of another living being,” one man said.
Momentum Against Bullfighting Is Stronger Than Ever
As demonstrated in the video, attitudes toward bullfighting have shifted—and younger generations are eager to leave the blood “sport” behind. “New generations are realizing that this isn’t right and are doing something to change it,” one man said.
Thanks in large part to PETA Latino’s massive campaigns against bullfighting, which support the tireless efforts of local organizations like Michoacán sin Tauromaquia, major progress is happening everywhere. Michoacán recently became the sixth Mexican state to ban bullfights, and earlier this year, Mexico City banned the torture and slaughter of bulls in its capital, making bullfights virtually impossible. In 2024, Colombia passed a nationwide bullfighting ban.
And, just this week, thanks to a campaign by PETA Latino and animal advocates from Mexico Sin Toreo, an illegal bullfight was cancelled in Morelia, Michoacán, in Mexico. The city’s mayor upheld the law banning bullfighting, sparing at least seven bulls from a slow and painful death.
More than 125 Spanish towns and cities have declared themselves against bullfighting, and over 715,000 Spaniards signed a PETA Latino-supported legislative initiative conducted by local organizations like AnimaNaturalis to repeal a 2013 law designating bullfighting as “cultural heritage”—because, as one man says in the video, “just because something is called ‘tradition’ doesn’t mean it’s okay.”
It’s Torture, Not Tradition
In nature, bulls are calm, social individuals who love and protect their families. During bullfights, 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 or, if that fails, cutting his spinal cord with a knife. The bull may be paralyzed but still conscious while humans cut his ears or tail off to present to the matador as a “trophy.”
“Bullfights” aren’t really fights at all, because bulls would never choose to participate in these bloodbaths. Humans mutilate, taunt, and slaughter the sensitive animals, who are strategically set up to lose. The bottom line: teasing, stabbing, and killing bulls is cruel and cowardly.
Take Action to End Bullfighting
“No animal should be seen as an object for human amusement,” one man said in the video. He’s exactly right: Every animal is someone who feels. Never attend a bullfight, and take action below to help us end the bloodshed:
