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Home / Colombian government against bullfighting

Colombian government against bullfighting

24-01-2018
Colombian government against bullfighting

The bullfighting season in Colombia just started. The first bullfight took place in the Colombian capital of Bogota. Until February 18, bullfights will take place here. During the first bullfight not even half of the bullring was filled with public.

A few hours before the start of the bullfighting season, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Colombia published a communiqué, addressed to the Congress of Colombia, with the request to continue the political debates about bullfighting. The Ministry of Internal Affairs:

“This is one of the eight countries of the world where practices like bullfighting take place, a violent expression and cruelty towards animals.”

The Ministry also states that bullfighting is disappearing in Colombia due to juridical decisions and social change.

Constitutional Court
During the first week of February 2017, The Colombian Constitutional Court decided that bullfighting can no longer be considered as an exception in the animal protection laws. It then recognized that bullfighting is animal maltreatment. With this statement by the court, the Congress has to develop new laws within two years to regulate bullfighting. This is a step towards the abolition of bullfighting in Colombia. The Congress has until May 19 2019 to develop legislation on bullfighting. In case the Congress doesn’t respond, the maltreatment and killing of a bull during a bullfight will automatically be punishable with imprisonment for 1 to 3 years.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has presented a bill to abolish bullfighting. After approval this bill would prohibit bullfights and other cruel events with bulls in Colombia.

Colombia Sin Toreo is a national coalition of social and animal protection organizations that is working feverishly to accomplish a prohibition on bullfighting, together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. CAS International supports the work of Colombia Sin Toreo and the Ministry.

To publicly support this bill, we handed over a letter at the Colombian Embassy to the Netherlands in The Hague in 2017. The ambassador received us at the Embassy, we had a conversation with him and were able to express our appreciation for the positive developments in Colombia.