‘Cruelty Isn’t Culture’: Ahead of Spain Concerts, Morrissey Calls on PM Sánchez to Ban Bullfighting

24.07.2026

Madrid — Just days before Morrissey takes the stage in Barcelona and Madrid on 25 and 29 July, the legendary musician has teamed up with PETA to call on Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to ban bullfighting. In a letter to Sánchez, Morrissey writes that bullfighting “continues to tarnish” Spain’s global reputation, and urges the prime minister to “…please use your good office to do something that the world and your people will love you for, and end this barbarism.”

[Photo of Morrissey wearing an ‘End Bullfighting’ tee]

Morrissey’s letter comes at a pivotal moment, with 52 Members of Parliament having reintroduced the “No Es Mi Cultura” (“It’s Not My Culture”) citizens’ initiative to Congress. This gives lawmakers another chance to end bullfighting’s protected cultural heritage status after the proposal failed in 2025, when Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE abstained from the vote. No Es Mi Cultura is the most-supported citizens’ legislative initiative in the last decade.

As “The Bullfighter Dies” singer—who previously teamed up with PETA to urge Pope Francis to end the Catholic Church’s blessing of bullfights—emphasises in his message to Sánchez, “A terrified and tortured animal dying in earnest, drowning in his own blood because a man has tortured and stabbed him, is cruelty to animals that cannot be excused as ‘culture.’”

During bullfights, assailants on horses drive lances into a bull’s back and neck before others plunge banderillas into his back. When the bull becomes weak from blood loss, a matador attempts to kill the animal by plunging a sword into his lungs. A knife is used to cut his spinal cord. The bull may be paralysed but still conscious as his ears or tail are cut off and presented to the matador as a trophy and his body is dragged from the arena.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way” – points out that when it comes to the ability to feel pain, hunger, and fear, a bull is a dog is a boy. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

Contact:

Sascha Camilli +44 207 923 6249; [email protected]

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