Bullfighting returns to Mexico City
Bullfighting is resuming in Mexico City following a hiatus imposed by a legal battle, when a last-ditch court filing did not generate a ruling in time to stop the event.
Animal rights activists have called the practice banned in numerous countries inhumane. Mexico is one of eight countries that still allow it.
Last month the country’s Supreme Court of Justice overturned a ban that had been in place since June 2022, paving the way for Sunday’s fight at Mexico City’s famed Plaza Mexico arena. The five justices disagreed with the injunction, which held that bullfights violate residents’ rights to a healthy, violence-free environment.
Justicia Justa, a human rights organization, had initially gotten a judge to suspend bullfighting on animal-welfare grounds. On Friday, another animal welfare group appealed the court’s decision to overturn the ban, but a ruling was not expected before the fight was scheduled to start.
Several Mexican states already limit or curtail bullfighting, while ranchers and businessmen claim their rights are violated by not allowing the practice.
“Animals are not things, they are living beings with feelings, and these living, feeling beings deserve protection under the constitution of Mexico City,” said city councilman Jorge Gaviño, who has tried to pass legislation for a permanent ban. None of his three attempts has passed.
About 250,000 bulls are killed in bullfights annually, according to the Humane Society International. Just eight countries — besides Mexico, they are Spain, France, Portugal, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru and Ecuador — have not outlawed it, although some cities in those countries have banned what the Humane Society calls an “unfair fight” ending in “an agonizing death.”