Colombia bans bullfighting: in which countries is it still practiced and why was the change made? | Spain | Peru | Mexico | Animal Abuse | Bullfighting | the world

The following is the administrative process of the executive branch in the hands of President Gustavo Pedro.

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The new law gives three years to provide economic alternatives to bull taming workers and to use bulls in cultural and sporting events.

This change is not unique to Colombia.

Argentina was one of the first countries to ban the practice. According to a newspaper report UniversalThe activity was banned in 1822 and the last recorded bullfights were between 1899 and 1902.

The United Kingdom went a little further and created the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty in 1824, one of the main organizations promoting animal welfare today. At that time, bullfighting was banned, as well as other activities such as fighting with dogs or other animals.

Already in the 20th century, Uruguay banned bullfighting and other activities deemed animal abuse in 1921, and so did Cuba. In countries like Bolivia and Paraguay, bullfights are performed as pirouettes.

For anthropologist Alex Huerta Mercado, two events occur in this transition: on the one hand, the disappearance of colonial, elite and hierarchical culture for a new popular culture; But above all, the relationship with animals, we know their suffering.

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“Beginning in the second half of the 20th century and moving towards the 90s, our relationship with animals has changed drastically. Animals look at us, we feel reflected in their eyes, that is, we present them with a series of human values, but in a very interesting way, as if we see innocence in them, we see them. We see them as younger brothers,” he said. Corresponding faculty from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP). Trade.

This new perspective has accompanied the environmental and animal rights movements.

Animals or the show?

But the Colombian process was not easy. Even in 2020, a similar plan was close to being approved, but was shelved.

While the vote now represents a big win for those who were in favor of the ban, it has a long history with Colombia’s bullfights, which had a large audience and people behind what they considered a spectacle.

Bogotá has been one of the centers of debate in recent years. Mouse in the middle German wave (DW) Bullfighting has been banned since 2012. However, last year Colombia’s Constitutional Court ordered the mayor’s office to open the Plaza Santamaría to celebrate bullfights and “guarantee the continuation of the artistic expression of bullfighting in the city of Bogotá.”

“We talk about tradition, we talk about the scene, but because every tradition changes it does not mean that it cannot be reviewed. So, the thing goes there, and new generations come with a new sensitivity to nature, a new concern for ecology and a new question towards their position on nature. ” Huerta Mercado points out in this diary.

On the other hand, there is also the economic factor along with issues related to identity and heritage. According to DW reports, a bullfighter in Colombia can earn between $20,000 and $150,000 per season, depending on whether he is local or not, and the Colombian industry created about 15,000 jobs per season.

“There is no right to control the dreams of many children who want to be bullfighters,” lamented Colombian bullfighter Cesar Rincon after learning of the decision by his country’s congress. By communicating Caracal RadioIt pointed out that it was an “attack on labor and brutality”.

Bullfighting: Now they are less

After Colombia’s decision, bullfighting now continues in only seven countries, including Peru. According to data from Humane Society InternationalThe practice is legal in Spain, France, Portugal, Mexico, Venezuela and Ecuador.

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180,000 bulls die each year during these operations, and they die in so-called bullfights, where they “suffer a prolonged death, physically and mentally weakened and tormented, even by barbed spears, before entering the bullfight. Chakras.”

But some restrictions are already in place in these countries. A CNN report indicates that the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Sonora, Guerrero, Coahuila and Quintana Roo have banned bullfighting, although it is still a legal practice for the country.

In Spain the situation is changing. There bullfights are regulated and protected.

And in a Peruvian case, the 2020 Animal Protection and Welfare Act (Act 30407) discussed the claim of unconstitutionality due to an exception raised. That year the Constitutional Court (TC) legalized bullfighting and bullfights, as well as cockfights, as traditional spectacles in Peru.

What does the future of bullfighting look like in these countries? It’s still a hotly debated topic.