Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Monday signed a invoice banning bullfighting within the South American nation, additional narrowing the quick checklist of countries all over the world the place the centuries-old custom remains to be authorized.
Petro signed it in entrance of a whole lot of animal rights activists throughout a ceremony at Bogota’s bullring, after a supporter dressed as a bull handed him a replica of the laws.
“We can’t inform the world that killing dwelling and delicate beings for enjoyable is tradition,” Petro mentioned in a speech after signing the invoice. “That type of tradition of killing an animal for enjoyable would additionally lead us to kill human beings for enjoyable, as a result of we’re animals too.”
The ban on bullfighting was authorised by the Colombian Congress in Could, after months of heated debate.
The invoice calls on the federal government to utterly ban bullfighting nationwide by 2027 and orders the federal government to transform greater than a dozen bullrings into cultural and sporting venues.
Bullfighting has been held in Colombia since Spanish colonial occasions, however the sport’s recognition has declined lately as views on animal rights have modified.
Bullfighting followers in Colombia say the ban violates the rights of minorities to precise their cultural heritage. They add that it additionally endangers the livelihoods of those that make their dwelling from bullfighting, corresponding to matadors, occasion promoters, merchants and cattle ranchers who specialise in breeding the aggressive, muscular animals utilized in bullfights.
On Monday, pro-bullfighting teams launched a social media marketing campaign in help of the custom, claiming the invoice was handed with out the help of Colombia’s Labor Ministry. Supporters have additionally mentioned they’ll problem the regulation in Colombia’s Constitutional Courtroom.
Presently, solely seven international locations enable bullfighting: Spain, France, Portugal, Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru. Nonetheless, some municipal and regional governments in these international locations have imposed native bans.
Petro has been an opponent of bullfighting since he was mayor of Bogotá. In 2012, he repealed a municipal contract that allowed bullfighting promoters to make use of the town’s bullring.
Animal rights activists in Colombia had lobbied Congress to ban bullfighting for twenty years, typically dropping key votes by slim margins. However in Could, they lastly managed to cross the ban with the assistance of lawmakers from Petro’s Historic Pact occasion and with the votes of some members of centrist and conservative events.
“For a few years we have now protested, we have now lobbied Congress and we have now tried to win the hearts of the Colombian individuals,” mentioned Chucho Merchán, a vegan activist and musician who spoke at Monday’s occasion. “In order that on this nation that has a lot violence we may give an instance that it’s doable to evolve in direction of a world with extra justice, freed from cruelty.”
