Bulls fight during an annual bullfighting tournament in Changwon, South Gyeongsang. This year, the tournament takes place from April 29 to May 3. [CHANGWON]
Every year, crowds pack arenas across rural Korea to watch bulls weighing up to 800 kilograms (1,764 pounds) lock horns in competitions that have been part of the country’s agricultural tradition for centuries. Now, a growing number of people want these tournaments to stop — and they are taking that demand to the ballot box.
The debate began to involve the upcoming June 3 local elections after the Korean Animal Welfare Association surveyed 500 residents in Changwon, South Gyeongsang — one of 11 regions that officially hosts bullfights — and found that 76 percent of participants opposed using city tax funds for the annual event. Additionally, 43 percent indicated that they would be willing to support a candidate who pledged to abolish the practice or cut its budget.
This year, Changwon allocated 166 million won ($110,000), including 10 million won from provincial funds, for the competition — a level of support that it has maintained annually since 1999.
Armed with such data, animal rights groups have been pressing major party candidates to state their position on bullfights. Song Sun-ho, the Democratic
Party candidate for Changwon, said that he supported scrapping the budget entirely, saying, “It is difficult to reflect this in my platform right now, but I will pursue [stopping the funding of bullfighting] as a priority policy going forward.”
Kang Ki-yoon, the People Power Party candidate, has yet to respond.
Of the 11 official bullfighting venues, only five have allocated budgets so far for their tournament this year: Changwon, Jinju at 220.8 million won, Uiryeong County at 400 million won and Changnyeong County at 157.4 million won, all of which are in South Gyeongsang, as well as Boeun County in North Chungcheong at 228 million won.
Animal rights activists hold a protest to call for the abolition of bullfighting competitions in front of a temporary bullfighting arena in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, on April 30. [KARA]
Even among those five, officials say that the future of bullfighting remains far from settled. “We have budgeted to hold a bullfight in the second half of the year, but depending on who wins the election, it may not happen,” said one local government official who asked not to be named.
The stated purpose of Korea’s Traditional Bullfighting Match Act is “to contribute to the promotion of rural development and the growth of the livestock industry by revitalizing traditional bullfighting and by providing for matters concerning bullfighting matches.”
However, a bill to repeal the act was submitted to the National Assembly in October of last year and is currently pending before a committee. The effort focuses on the law’s status as an exception to the Animal Protection Act, which generally prohibits harming animals for gambling or entertainment purposes.
Local governments that support bullfighting cite the economic benefits as their main justification. At last year’s Boeun competition, for example, beef sales reached 483.97 million won. During April’s Uiryeong competition, vendors sold around 45 million won worth of the local brand beef.
A handler leads a fighting bull into the arena by pulling its nose ring during a bullfighting competition in Uiryeong County, South Gyeongsang, in April 2025. [ANIMAL LIBERATION WAVE]
Organizers also argue that the event draws tourists when held alongside regional festivals. However, Changwon is the only local government to have formally analyzed the economic impact of bullfights. A study by the Changwon Research Institute last year estimated that participants spent around 450 million won on transport, accommodation, food and shopping — more than double the competition’s budget of 175 million won at the time.
Officials elsewhere acknowledged that they lacked comparable data. “We have no quantified analysis, but we expect that it contributes to the local economy through spending by visitors,” one official said.
But animal rights groups are not convinced. They point to concerns involving illegal gambling at the tournaments and children’s and teenagers’ exposure to animal violence. “The reality is that the competitions are barely maintaining interest by drawing residents rather than tourists,” said Lee Seung-chan, the secretary general of Animal Liberation Wave. “They risk instilling in visiting families a distorted attitude toward life and violence.”
On the other hand, stakeholders, including the Korea Traditional Bullfighting Association (translation), argue that bullfights hold genuine cultural and historical value, with the answer lying not in abolition but in stronger animal welfare protection and a crackdown on illegal gambling.
“It is a conflict of multiple values and interests. After sufficient debate, a process of public deliberation involving residents and other third parties is needed to weigh the competing arguments,” said Cho Hyo-rae, a sociology professor at Changwon National University.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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