Updated

Organizers of the annual bullfighting festival in Ecuador's capital are calling it quits a year after it stopped killing bulls in accordance with the will of voters.

Ecuador approved a 2011 ballot question banning the killing of animals for entertainment.

The Quito festival had run for 52 years, attracting top bullfighters and generating about $15 million in revenues over six days. This year's festival was to have begun Dec. 1.

In a letter to the mayor, organizers blamed the cancellation announced Friday on the killing ban and continued opposition to the spectacle.

More than 40 bulls were killed during past fights.

Bullfighting will continue in some smaller Ecuadorean towns. Bulls will be killed in some and not in others, depending on how towns voted last year.