From the five Latin American countries that have a bullfighting industry, Peru seems to be the fourth most bullfighting country.

Bullfighting started in Peru with the arrival of the first Spaniards and the corrida de toros was made an official spectacle in Lima in 1558. Today the bullfighting industry organizes about 377 bullfights a year in Peru (data from 2008), most of them in the departments of Cajamarca, Lima, and Ancash. Peru has 18 important bullrings (the Plaza de Acho in Lima is the biggest, which holds 13,000 seats), at least 39 breeders of 'bullfighting bulls' and one bullfighting school.

The bullfighting season in the Acho bullring in Lima (which has its present form since 1946 and is owned by Sociedad de Beneficencia Pública de Lima) starts the 1st of November and ends the 23rd of November. 'Only' five bullfights take place, on Sundays. Bullfights in the Acho bullring are organized by Taurolima, who received a five year contract in 2006. The number of bullfights in Lima has decreased in the last few years and this has created tension within the bullfighting industry. In 2007, Taurolima started to dispute with the Peruvian Association of Bullfighting Breeders, which was not happy with the reduction of bullfights.

Bullfighting is legal in Peru because although there is national animal protection legislation for domestic and captive animals, it exempts bullfighting and cockfighting. There have been several attempts to modify this law and to remove the exemptions. Significant progress was made in 2004 with a ruling by Peru's Constitutional Tribunal, which stripped bullfighting of its 'cultural' status (Exp. Num 0042-2004-AI/TC) stating that the bullfighting industry also has to pay taxes. Tax exemption is for cultural activities and bullfighting is a commercial activity.

In 2006 José Urquizo Maggia, a Congressman of the political party UPP (Union por el Perú), proposed a new Bill (496-2006) to remove the bullfighting exception from the Animal Protection legislation. It is now in the stage of 'committee discussion'. However, this project is jumping from committee to committee, which end up deciding that it is not their competence to ban bullfighting. The problem is that not only the bullfighting bill is 'on hold' by being passed on as a 'hot potato', but also that the law the bill is trying to amend cannot be enforced, since it has got no regulations yet (each government department has attempted to produce their own regulations - twenty in total - often incompatible with each others' regulations).

However, it appears that a new animal protection law - more modern than the existing one - is being developed on the initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture, which decided to go for a new law instead of a regulation.

The Catholic Church - as in many other countries - is directly involved with the bullfighting industry. During the main bullfighting festival in Lima, called Señor de los Milagros (Lord of the Miracles), religious ornaments (escapularios) are given to the bullfighters who 'win' the festival, as gold and silver prizes. However, the anti-bullfighting movement has managed to 'turn the tables' on this involvement with the creation of the 'anti-bullfighting Christ', a statue featuring Jesus Christ on the Cross (stabbed with bullfighting swords and banderillas).

Peru also has cruel fiestas and other 'sports' that involve bulls. For instance, in the department of Arequipa there is the Pelea de Toros, which literally means bullfighting, since in this case bulls (not from the 'bullfighting breed') are set to fight with other bulls, not with humans.

The other famous fiesta with bulls in Peru is the Yáwar fiesta ('fiesta of the blood'), an activity traditionally performed in many villages in the mountainous Andean regions, during which a live wild condor is tied to a bull's back (representing the struggle between the Incas and the Conquistadores).

As in all regions of the world where Spanish-style bullfighting takes place, all sorts of 'amateur' bullfights with novillos and becerros are organized in Peru, as well as 'comic' bullfights that are known in Peru as Corrida Bufa. There are also encierros (bull runs) in Peru, known as jalatoros or pascuatoros. In Lima, these events are organized once a year, in April. The most well known festival happens in Easter in Ayacucho, capital of Huamanga, and also involves horses.

A Datum poll commissioned by CAS International and UPA in Peru in 2008 gives a very clear picture of the anti-bullfighting sentiments of the Peruvian people. The results show that 86% of the Peruvians over 18 years old is not interested in bullfighting, 68% is against it and 66% wants a national law to ban it. 64% of the Peruvians want their municipality to declare itself anti-bullfighting. Although all Peruvian departments show more people against bullfighting that in favour, the least anti-bullfighting departments can be found in the Andean mountains.