Soft drink pulls bull running prize

Revelers run beside a Fuente Ymbro ranch bull on the Estafeta corner during the most recent running of the bulls at the San Fermin fiesta in Spain. Photo / AP

A Pepsi New Zealand competition promising to send four people to the Running of the Bulls in Spain has been canned amid outrage from animal activists.

The 'Bromitment' competition offers to send a winner and three close friends on an international trip worth $30,000.

Animal rights group SAFE NZ campaigned against the inclusion of a trip to the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona as a prize.

It claimed the event amounted to animal "torture", with frenzied bulls made to stampede through the town before being herded into a bullring and stabbed to death.

Hundreds of people posted complaints against Pepsi on Facebook and Twitter.

Pepsi this afternoon announced it had withdrawn the running of the bulls option from its competition.

Aisha Daji Punga, Pepsi's commercial director for New Zealand, said the widescale opposition from SAFE and many others was behind the decision.

He said the company apologised "unreservedly" for including the prize in the competition.

SAFE NZ campaign manager Mandy Carter applauded the decision on its Facebook page.

"SAFE is pleased that Pepsi made the right decision to distance themselves from this animal cruelty spectacle. It is disappointing that a company like Pepsi decided to get involved with this sort of abuse in the first place but we congratulate the fact they recognized their mistake and made amends for it."