On Tuesday, the Mexico City Congress voted to ban what it designated “violent bullfights,” ushering in new rules that ban the killing of bulls inside or outside the bull ring as well as the infliction of physical injury such as stabbing animals with sharp objects, like swords or spears. Passing with 61 votes in favor to just one against, this law takes effect immediately, marking a new era in which bulls will for the first time receive full legal protection from cruelty in the bullring.
The new regulations also prohibit violence against animals in novilladas, rejoneo, becerradas and other variations on bullfighting in which bulls traditionally suffer injuries or death. The horns of the bulls will be padded to prevent injury to other animals or people, and once an event has ended, the bulls will be returned to the farms from which they came instead of being killed at the arena.
"The spectacle of blood cannot be justified as art or tradition,” said Mexico City’s head of government Clara Brugada: "Culture evolves, and we have the responsibility to transform it in favor of animal welfare."
Perhaps one of the most inspiring things about this progress is that it happened because people spoke out against animal cruelty. México Sin Toreo, a coalition of organizations, submitted a citizen-led priority initiative that gathered over 27,000 signatures from citizens supporting the abolition of bullfights, cockfights and other cruel practices.
Brugada then proposed the ban, which she believes is properly aligned with the Mexican Parliament’s December 2024 constitutional reform to prohibit animals’ mistreatment and guarantee their protection, conservation and care. That historic action literally embedded animal protection as a fundamental concern within Mexico’s constitution.
What Brugada and her allies sought to do with the new legislation was find a way to preserve the bullfighting tradition and the economic activities that surrounded it while removing the actual violence and death that was routine at the Plaza de Toros, the world’s largest bullring, for nearly 80 years.
Just a few days before Brugada presented the legislation, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, commenting on the petition from Mexico sin Toreo, expressed her support for a “violence-free” proposal.
To be clear, “violence-free” won’t necessarily mean suffering-free, because the bulls will still be forced to endure the stresses of a noisy bullring and being goaded into charging the red cape or “muleta” of the matador. But the worst elements of the spectacle, the injuries and deaths in the ring, will now be consigned to history.
For some years now, bullfighting has become increasingly controversial throughout Mexico, with legislation, lawsuits, public criticisms and hard-hitting campaigns generating unprecedented scrutiny and opposition. A federal administrative court judge in Mexico City temporarily suspended bullfighting at the Plaza de Toros in May 2022 after an advocacy group filed a lawsuit. In June, a month later, the judge suspended the practice definitively. In December 2023, however, Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice overturned that decision.
Last year, a total of 54 bulls were killed in Mexico City between January 18 and March 24, the period encompassing 2024’s nine-day bullfighting season there.
I’m so proud of the steady gains we’ve made in our work to end bullfighting. There are existing bans on bullfighting in the five Mexican states of Sinaloa, Sonora, Guerrero, Coahuila and Quintana Roo. In recent years, we’ve seen tremendous momentum in the campaign to eradicate the cruelty of bullfighting through public and policymaker opinion.
The progress we’re seeing in other nations is also substantial. Bullfighting is already banned by law in many countries including Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, Italy and the United Kingdom. Colombia, the most recent nation to ban bullfighting, effective from 2027 onward, has announced the conversion of more than a dozen bullrings there into new cultural and sporting venues.
Even in Spain, a traditional stronghold of bullfighting, some cities, including Calonge, Tossa de Mar, Vilamacolum and La Vajol, have banned it.
Still, progress can’t come quickly enough for the bulls still subjected to horrific torment and death in the ring. The countries in which bullfighting continues without nationwide bans include Ecuador, France, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Mexico, Spain and Venezuela, and the numbers and the violence remain staggering; approximately 180,000 bulls are killed in bullfights annually, and many more are killed or injured in bull fiesta events.
The public policy battles we’re waging are of tremendous importance and every city, state or nation that bans bullfighting is forging a path that leads to the end of blood spectacles in which animals are harmed and killed.
Ultimately, however, the fight to end bullfighting, bull fiestas and related cruelties will hinge on our success in dissuading people from ever attending such events. To do so, everyone must embrace the idea that tradition is no justification for cruelty, that cruelty to animals is a moral wrong, and that there is no place for the violence of the bullring as we have known it for so long.
