The matador faces the bull, his cape fluttering slightly in the breeze. The enormous black bull charges forward, aiming for the vivid, flapping movements of the cape’s fabric. This is a bullfight. Bullfights have been occurring in quite a few countries- they are traditional in Spain, France, and Portugal, while Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Guatemala, and, more recently, the U.S. have all had bullfights occurring regularly for years. Considered an art form by many, the bullfight is a deadly, dangerous dance between a man, called the matador, and the bull. The bull is a minimum of four years old and is usually several tons. The matador executes many passes with a cloak, appearing graceful and confidant while establishing dominance over the animal, which grows steadily angrier. The dance ends with the matador killing the bull with a thrust of his sword into the space between the shoulder blades, which severs the aorta. Sometimes this fails, and the matador has to use another sword to sever the spinal cord, just at the base of the neck. This is all towards the end of the bullfight. Before this, the bull is stabbed with barbed spikes and taunted so that the matador may see how well the bull performs. Sometimes, if a bull is unwilling to fight, the president of the bullring will grant the bull a pardon, and it will be spared. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the bullfight. Those who side with the bullfight claim that it is traditional and the bull would have been killed for food anyway. Others state that while this may be true, the bullfight is barbaric, cruel, and torturous for the bull, which has no choice in the matter. In order to make an educated decision, we must look at the history of bullfighting. Bullfighting can trace its roots back to bull worship and sacrifice, which was iconic of the ancient Roman "mystery religion" in the act of Mithras. It is often linked to Rome, because of the many man-versus-beast fights th