Thus, Article 3 establishes that the plans and study programs will incorporate “the perspective of protection, care and non-abuse of animals, based on the specific relationships they have with people.”
Article 4 prohibits animal abuse, as well as the state’s obligation to protect, care for and preserve animals, while in 73, the Congress of the Union is given the power to approve concurrent laws “to protect, care for, as well as prevent and prohibit animal abuse according to its nature and links with people, including animals intended for human consumption.”
The reform was proposed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on February 5 and received 38 votes overall.
At the beginning of the ordinary session, it is expected that it will be submitted to the plenary session of the deputies.
In the debate, the deputies added to the ruling that the use of wildlife species for shows will be prohibited, as proposed by the deputy of the Green Party (PVEM), Antonio Gómez Betancourt.
However, the legislator did not respond to the PRI’s request to include all species and not just wild ones, since, he was questioned, the PVEM has not explained why it continues to support bullfights.
For PRI deputies Rubén Moreira and Marco Antonio Mendoza, it is inexplicable that the PVEM makes this distinction between one animal and another, except that in the case of domesticated animals there are shows promoted by “the oligarchs” and there are no shows with wild animals.
“What about horse mating, which is cruel? What about dog fights? Cock fights? Why only the wild? Why not move forward and eliminate the suffering of the animals we consume?” said Rubén Moreira, coordinator of the PRI.
The case sparked a polemic between the environmentalist, who accused neoliberal governments of having done nothing for animals, and the PRI members:
“He forgot that we govern together and that the Ministry of the Environment was the responsibility of the PVEM,” said Moreira.
Today they question everything, but they come from PRI governments and from “what they say does not exist, the Ministry of the Environment (Semarnat) and the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection,” Mendoza claimed.
