PETA activists storm the Vatican as they interrupt Pope's audience to call for end to bullfighting
7 August 2024, 13:41
Two activists from animal rights group Peta have stormed the Vatican and interrupted the Pope's general audience to call for an end to bullfighting.
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The two activists were wearing t-shirts reading: "Stop blessing corridas" and holding banners saying: "Bullfighting is a sin."
Peta has been pleading with the Pope to cut the Catholic Church's ties with bullfighting and condemn the "despicable blood sport".
According to the organisation, each year, tens of thousands of bulls are killed in bullfighting festivals globally, many dedicated to Catholic saints.
At the events, lances and banderillas are thrust into the bull, causing acute pain and restricting its movement.
Peta said in a statement on its website: "As numerous countries are wisely banning this sick form of 'entertainment'.
"Pope Francis must immediately denounce this blood sport and cut the Catholic Church's shameful ties with bullfighting."
The Vatican did not immediately comment on Wednesday's protest.
It comes after British priest Terry Martin recently called on the pope to condemn bullfighting in a campaign with Peta.
The priest, from West Sussex, posed in a red chasuble next to a bull with the inscription: "It is a sin to torture animals."
Peta has highlighted that Pope Francis wrote in his encyclical Laudato Si' that "any act of cruelty to any creature is 'contrary to human dignity' and that, as early as the 16th century, Pope St Pius V banned bullfights that were deemed 'cruel' and 'far removed from Christian piety and charity'".
