Canceled: Dangerous and Illegal California Great Bull Run

In March, ALDF and PETA filed a lawsuit against the Great Bull Run and the Lone Star Rodeo Company in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit aims to end bull runs in California and is the first case that has been filed to stop these events, which have provoked a widespread outcry across the United States. According to the lawsuit, these events violate California’s anti-cruelty law and Unfair Competition Law.

During the Great Bull Run events, organizers send as many as three dozen panicked bulls, weighing nearly one ton each, barreling down a narrow track at up to 35 miles per hour, chasing fleeing runners—many of whom have been drinking alcohol. Veterinary experts have concluded that the event also causes unnecessary suffering and stress to the animals. “As a bovine veterinarian, I can confirm that this event is extremely stressful for the bulls and presents substantial risk of injury to them, as well as an enormous public safety risk to the humans participating,” said Dr. Holly Cheever, veterinarian and vice president of the New York State Humane Association. The California Penal Code makes it unlawful to cause any bull to fight with a human or to subject any animal to needless suffering, which bull runs do. California also bans the promotion and exhibition of bulls in “bloodless bullfights” and similar events, such as the Great Bull Run.

“PETA’s motto reads, in part, ‘animals are not ours to use for entertainment,’ and the Great Bull Run—in which bulls are needlessly terrorized for ‘fun’—shows why,” says PETA Foundation Deputy General Counsel Delcianna Winders. “Authorities across the country should follow the lead of the Los Angeles County Fire Department and turn this cruel event away at the county line.”

“We applaud the Los Angeles County Fire Department for its protection of public health and safety by rejecting permits for this dangerous and ridiculous spectacle,” said Stephen Wells, executive director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “Traumatized animals, hospitalized runners, and violations of public safety make this event a disgrace for any jurisdiction.”

ALDF and PETA are represented by in-house counsel and the law firm Evans & Page.

Copies of the complaint and the fire department’s rejection letter are available by request.

ALDF was founded in 1979 with the unique mission of protecting the lives and advancing the interests of animals through the legal system. For more information, please visit aldf.org.

Founded in 1980, PETA is the largest animal rights organization in the world, with more than 3 million members and supporters. PETA works through public education, cruelty investigations, celebrity involvement, protest campaigns, and other ways to spread the message that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way. For more information, please visit PETA.org.


July 31, 2014
http://aldf.org/press-room/press-releases/canceled-dangerous-and-illegal-california-great-bull-run/


Animal Legal Defense Fund
http://aldf.org/press-room/press-releases/canceled-dangerous-and-illegal-california-great-bull-run/