Ban on Toro de la Vega remains in force
26-05-2025A recent ruling by the High Court of Castile and León has once again struck down the controversial bull festival Toro de la Vega in the Spanish town of Tordesillas. This puts an end to the municipality’s attempts to continue this cruel bull festival in a new form.
Ban on Toro de la Vega remains in force | Picture: Aitor Garmendia / CAS International / AnimaNaturalis
Toro de la Vega was originally a tournament in which a bull was chased across a field and killed with lances. In 2016, the killing and injuring of the bull were banned. The event was then turned into a bull run without lances or blood.
This change came after years of campaigning by the Spanish animal rights party PACMA and CAS International, with the support of Spanish organizations. In 2022, the municipality attempted to revive the event using divisas — attaching an emblem with a 9-centimeter harpoon to the bull’s skin.
PACMA initiated legal proceedings against this three years ago. The High Court of Castile and León ruled that this modification did not change the essence of the event. People were still injuring the bull for public entertainment. The court emphasized that there is no veterinary evidence proving that an event with divisas is less painful or harmful for the animal.
Estefanía Pampín Zuidmeer, campaigner at CAS, was in Tordesillas in 2015 to film the gruesome event:
“We must remain vigilant: as long as legal loopholes exist, the municipality of Tordesillas will continue trying to circumvent the law. Attaching divisas is just another way of prolonging the bull’s suffering. The bull is still being tortured – only now his death struggle takes place out of sight.”
Toro de la Vega 2022 | Picture: CAS International / AnimaNaturalis
Traditions are no excuse for animal xruelty
According to Mayor Miguel Ángel Oliveira, removing the lethal element from the event meant that it complied with the law. “We want to preserve the tradition without killing the animal,” said a municipal spokesperson. However, the court disagreed. Any act that involves wounding, pricking, or hitting the animal — no matter how ‘symbolic’ — remains prohibited.
Maite van Gerwen, Director of CAS International:
“This ruling makes it clear that traditions are no excuse for animal cruelty.”
End of Toro de la Vega
Since 2006, we have been campaigning — together with PACMA and later also with Humane World for Animals (formerly HSI) — to bring an end to Toro de la Vega. With our campaign Rompe una lanza (‘Break a lance’), we raised national awareness in Spain about the existence of Toro de la Vega, leading to growing public opposition.
People from the Netherlands have also participated in protests each year. This showed that this cruelty towards animals was not just a Spanish issue, but one that faced resistance throughout Europe. Where initially hardly anyone outside of Tordesillas had heard of Toro de la Vega, over time the movement grew into a broad coalition of organizations and individuals committed to a full ban.
In 2016, the event was officially banned and replaced with a non-lethal bull run. But our fight in Tordesillas is not over. As long as bulls are used in bull festivals — even without blood or killing — we will continue to fight for a complete ban. Together with AnimaNaturalis, we are running the Blood Fiestas campaign to raise awareness about this cruelty.
Furthermore, in 2022, we again filed charges against the municipality of Tordesillas and the organizers of the event, as the bull run was held without authorization from the regional government of Castile and León.
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