The oldest known depiction of a man interacting with an animal dates back to 23000 BC.
This animal is none other than a bull.
This image is located in Dordogne on the walls of the Villars cave.
The prehistoric man faces the bull. He holds an object in his hands. A lure, or perhaps a weapon. Could this first "encounter" be a representation of bullfighting?
This is the interpretation offered by the prehistorian Leroi-Gourhan, the historian Georges Charrière, and André Viard, the president of the ONCT.
This "first contact" can be complemented by two other images, close in time and space: in the caves of Roc de Sers (19000 BC) and at Lascaux (17000 BC).
"The man charged by a bison" in Villars
"Man chased by a bison" at Roc de Sers
"The man struck by a bison" at Lascaux.
Sources:
Issue no. 50 of April 2014, of the magazine "TERRES TAURINES"
ONCT website: http://www.culturestaurines.com/tauromachies%20pari%C3%A9tales
Georges Charrière, in 1968 in “La revue de l'histoire des religions” n°174-1, published by the Collège de France