Leading Legal Reforms for Animals in Mexico

In addition to bringing to light the atrocities committed on industrial farms, Animal Equality works to introduce constitutional and legal reforms that improve conditions for farmed animals and criminalize such practices. mistreatment and inhumane treatment. Where safeguards are in place, our legal team will work to ensure they are enforced and that inhumane acts against domestic animals are prosecuted.

Through tireless investigations and advocacy, Animal Equality has initiated many groundbreaking legal reforms for domestic animals in Mexico. There’s still a lot of progress to be made, but here are some of the significant achievements we’ve made over the past few years with animals like chickens, pigs, cows and goats in Mexico.

Animals in the Mexican Constitution

We are pushing for national reforms to ensure animal protection at the federal, state and municipal levels. Animal Equality, together with representatives of the Green Ecological Party of Mexico, proposed a important constitutional reform that would change the legal status of the animal. This reform law was presented to the House of Representatives of the Mexican Congress in December 2021. In an important act that paved the way for general animal welfare legislation for the country, the reform would give Congress legislative powers. on animal welfare issues. Over time, this will lead to laws that establish national standards for animal welfare.

This reform is considered a necessary step to distinguish animal welfare from environmental protection, two areas that are not clearly defined in the current law. It also provides special recognition for animals kept under the law and general recognition of how sentient animals suffer in the absence of welfare safeguards.

First Mexican city to criminalize cruelty to domestic animals

Thanks to the work of Animal Equality, in cooperation with government representatives and local animal rights groups, the city of Zapopan has become a first in Mexico to introduce legal protections for domestic animals. This new animal protection regulation, passed in July 2020, makes it illegal to slaughter animals without first stunning them and bans killing animals on public roads. The regulation also criminalizes cruelty, such as failing to properly stun animals or mutilating them.

Zapopan’s legislation would not have been possible without Animal Equality’s campaign to reform the Penal Code in 2019 in Jalisco, the state in which Zapopan is located. The Penal Code has paved the way for the criminalization of pet abuse, and Zapopan city law matches this by including criminal penalties for inhumane acts. Zapopan’s progressive recognition of the need to protect domestic animals is an important milestone in our fight to end the cruelty of industrial livestock.

Expanding laws to protect domestic animals in Hidalgo

Together with members of the legislature, local animal groups and civic associations, Animal Equality has proposed a 2021 bill that would strengthen and expand animal protection laws in Hidalgo. This initiative is the result of our investigation of the Tizayuca Slaughter Facility, which discovered pigs that were beaten and roughly handled, locked in puddles of faeces and blood, and slaughtered in when fully awake. Using evidence from this investigation, we filed a legal complaint with three authorities in Mexico: the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the State Attorney for the Government of Hidalgo, and the Ministry of Health. for the Government of Hidalgo.

This 2021 bill, once passed, would significantly expand welfare laws for domestic animals, to include mandatory sedation before slaughter, ensuring that animals have adequate food and water. drink, and at the same time ban the forced molting of birds. Other provisions require video monitoring of slaughterhouses, improving the environment for animals, and providing enough room for animals to move and change positions naturally. In Hidalgo, where about 41 million animals are killed for food each year, this measure would ease their suffering by establishing legal standards for their treatment.

Improving the welfare of hens and chickens in Jalisco

Jalisco is Mexico’s leading egg producer, and we’ve proposed a ranch bill that will change the lives of chickens in the state. In addition to many other provisions that benefit animals, this measure prohibits forced molting. This practice, where hens are deprived of food and water causing them to shed and grow new feathers, is popular in the meat industry because it also results in larger eggs. The extreme stress of this practice leads to incalculable suffering for the chickens.

Under this new 2021 bill, domestic animals would be added to existing animal protection laws and provisions addressing cruelty to domestic animals would go beyond most animal welfare standards in the United States. USA. Once passed, this measure will mark a historic achievement in domestic animal welfare.

Outlawed underground slaughterhouse in Puebla

Animals in underground slaughterhouses face carnage by brutal methods of violence without the need to stun, so we took action to close these unregulated facilities. In Puebla, where 70 to 80 percent of the meat comes from unregulated slaughterhouses, Animal Equality has begun negotiations with government officials. We informed them about the animal suffering and the public risks inherent in these underground facilities. The result is Puebla outlawed unregulated slaughterhouse and slaughter at live animal markets in a move that will save countless animals from brutal deaths.

This reform followed a successful initiative by Animal Equality in Jalisco in 2019 and introduced criminal penalties such as imprisonment and fines for breaking the new law.

Authorization of video cameras in slaughterhouses in Naucalpan

Industrial farms and slaughterhouses escape cruelty and abuse because their actions are hidden from the public. Animal Equality seeks to create transparency around the inhumane practices of animal agriculture and hold companies accountable when abuse occurs. We worked with the town of Naucalpan to through regulations not only protect livestock, but also require video surveillance of slaughterhouses to ensure welfare procedures are followed.

In addition to other important provisions, the Naucalpan law also includes the “Professional Animals” Principles. This states that when implementing regulations, if there is any question about how to interpret them, the interpretation that is in the best interest of the animal should be used.

Prohibition of the sale and slaughter of live animals in Mexico City

Because of Animal Equality’s initiatives to ban the slaughter of live animals both locally and National level, mobile vendors in Mexico City are no longer allowed to sell or kill animals. This means that many animals will not experience stress from transportation, cramped and unsanitary conditions, and the pain of being killed while fully conscious. Suppliers who break the law risk being suspended from work and losing their supplier license.

This is an amazing step forward for animals, but we won’t stop there. We are working to ban live markets and unregulated slaughterhouses in all of Mexico and we have launched international campaign ban live markets from selling and killing animals worldwide.

Fighting for the environment in Mexico

Not only are we working to change animal protection laws, we are also demanding that industrial agriculture be held accountable for the damage to our environment and natural resources. In 2020, Animal Equality used drones to investigate two industrial pig farms in Jalisco and released the documentary, Enemies of the planet, based on our findings. We conducted a follow-up report detailing the amazing ecological devastation caused by industrial farms and violated many times Mexican environmental regulations.

Our investigation shows that ponds filled with liquid manure emit high amounts of greenhouse gases, sewage overflows into lakes, soil and groundwater, and toxic odors from large amounts of waste produced by farms. Supported by evidence from our investigation, we have reported 44 farms for environmental damage, and we are demanding their closure.

Act

With our investigations and legal reform campaign, Animal Equality has made important progress in the legal regulation and protection of domestic animals in Mexico. These achievements mean less suffering for animals raised and killed for food, but more work remains to be done to undo the secrecy and cruelty of industrial agriculture. We will not stop until all animals are legally protected.

You can help animals by widely sharing news about Animal Equality investigations and supporting our work. The most powerful action you can take to prevent animal suffering is to get them off your plate. Making compassionate, plant-based choices in your diet will not only save animals from cruelty, but will also be the best choice for protecting the environment and conserving our natural resources. we.