NGO accuses legislators of forgetting the approval of the animal protection law

Fernando Camacho Servín

La Jornada Newspaper, Saturday, May 3, 2025, p. 9

Although all parliamentary groups in both chambers voted in favor of a constitutional reform on animal protection and welfare, the secondary legislation for this amendment was not passed during the recently concluded ordinary session, representing an act of contempt that must be remedied without fail starting in September.

This was stated by Dulce Ramírez, executive director of the civil organization Igualdad Animal, who lamented that some factions politicized the issue to take advantage of it, but then forgot to draft the first General Law for the Protection and Welfare of Animals, which is necessary to achieve structural and long-term changes.

The ordinary session is over, we're going into a four-month recess, and we haven't received a single opinion on the four proposals in the Chamber of Deputies and one more in the Senate. This law is a priority because it would include, for the first time, a group of animals that has never been made visible: those used for human consumption , the activist emphasized in an interview with La Jornada.

Ramírez noted that although some regulations already exist on this matter, such as 033 (on desensitizing animals before killing them) and 051 (on their conditions for transporting them while alive), there is still no significant legal progress at the national level regarding the care of animals for human consumption.

Federal authorities, he said, have been completely incompetent in enforcing the implementation of good practices issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, which are not even mandatory.

In this scenario, the fact that the second ordinary session of the 66th Legislature has ended without having at least a draft opinion for a General Law for the Protection and Welfare of Animals seems to us a terrible constitutional contempt .

After noting that companies that profit from animals continue to resist assuming the costs of their protection and well-being, Ramírez noted that it has been very discouraging that the two chambers have not spoken to each other to agree on a single opinion on the matter. Some factions, such as the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico, have even launched different initiatives.

Ramírez called on legislators to pass a general law in the next session, allowing enough time to create a "solid and comprehensive" law. We must not allow a fast-track bill during the extraordinary session without the necessary review and agreements.