Abstract

Bullfighting has been recently accepted as Cultural Heritage by the Spanish Government. There is a current initiative to declare bullfighting as Intangible Cultural Heritage and include it in the UNESCO list. The proponents of such initiatives contend that bullfighting should be protected and promoted on the grounds that it is an artistic activity, part of the national culture. In this chapter, I discuss the moral arguments and legal aspects that can be pitted against such a cruel practice. More specifically, I will examine the serious obstacles to the legal protection of such practices, which cause suffering and aim at killing nonhuman animals based on cultural or artistic reasons.