Bullfighting aficionados contend that the events are battles to the death in which either participant, the bull or the matador may die. In reality, the bull never has a chance to win, and the bullfight is only a cruel spectacle of human dominance.

Studies have proven that before the bullfight even begins, the bulls are weakened with drugs. Their horns are shaved to throw off their equilibrium and they are kept in total darkness before the event so that they are blinded when they are forced to enter the arena. During the first stage, picadors, men on horseback, drive pics into the bull's neck to start the flow of blood and to anger him. Next banderillas gouge brightly colored spears into the bull's neck to lower his bead in preparation for the kill. The barbed spears continue to move and dig into the bulls back throughout the fight, causing bleeding and tissue damage.

The bull may also experience internal bleeding. Once the bull has been weakened by blood loss, the matador taunts the bull for several minutes before he stabs the bull between the shoulder blades. He aims for the bull's vital organs, but often misses, causing the bull to suffer further. Often, the bull maintains consciousness, even as the matador and his team begin carving his ears distribution as trophies.

Bullfighting is losing support and popularity. In 2004 245,000 activists signed a petition to ban bullfighting in Barcelona. While bullfights occur primarily in Mexico, Spain, and the south of France, curious American tourists are largely to blame for the support of this institution. The prevalence of tourists at these events allows bullfights to occur with greater frequency than they otherwise would.