Argumentative Essay on PETA (Spanish Bullfighting)

Across different cultures bullfighting has taken many different forms for thousands of years. From an American perspective, traditional Spanish bullfighting can feel outdated and extremely cruel to these animals. In the United States, animal cruelty does exist in sports. However, this animal cruelty is not as public and encouraged as much as it is in Spanish bullfighitng. Animal rights groups such as PETA are understandably against traditional bullfighting as the clear cruelty the bulls endure with the sport. However, what PETA and western oppositionists fail to recognize about bullfighting is the sacred nature of the art. Bulls should not be viewed as being mercilessly slaughtered by bloodthirsty humans. Instead the killing of bulls should be viewed as a sacrifice and an honor to the matadors and the spectators of the bullfight. Spanish philosophers and novelists such as Fernando Savater and Mario Vargas Llosa are firm believers that “Bullfighting provides a great deal of aesthetic inspiration for the Spanish arts, and if banned, it would constitute a huge loss of cultural heritage” (Andrade). Before deciding to ban bull fighting, it is essential to investigate it’s relation to two important ethical constructs: deontology and utilitarianism. After research of bullfighting relationship with deontology and utilitarianism, I can confidently conclude that traditional Spanish bull fighting should not be banned in its current form.

My first contention regards Spanish bull fighting’s relationship with deontology. As a philosopher, Kant focused on ethics and interactions between humans. As outlined in the categorical imperative, Kant believed no human should ever use another as a means to an end. With this, Kant believed humans and animals should be classified under two different rule sets of ethics due to the fact “Animals are not self-conscious and are there merely as a means to an end. The end is man” (Kant). Although science has now proven Kant to be incorrect on his theory of animal consciousness, Kant still had some opinions of animal ethics that stand strongly today.