The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) has once again placed the debate on bullfighting and cockfighting on the public agenda, after analyzing the ban on these spectacles in the municipality of Tepic, Nayarit.
The discussion takes place within a context marked by the recent constitutional reform on animal welfare and a national trend toward restricting entertainment practices that involve cruelty to animals.
The analysis was conducted while reviewing General Declaration of Unconstitutionality 6/2025, related to several articles of the Tepic Animal Welfare Regulations, which prohibit spectacles that cause suffering, pain, or endanger the lives of animals.
During the plenary session, Justice Lenia Batres Guadarrama voted against the proposal to invalidate Article 19, sections X, XII, and XXI of the municipal regulations.
In her remarks, she maintained that the constitutional framework changed substantially following the reform published on December 2, 2024.
Batres recalled that Article 4 of the Constitution now expressly prohibits animal abuse and obligates the Mexican State to guarantee their protection, conservation, and proper treatment.
From her perspective, no regulation or local law can legitimize acts that, by their very nature, constitute animal cruelty.
The minister affirmed that both bullfighting and cockfighting are characterized by causing prolonged physical and psychological suffering until the animal’s death for purely recreational purposes, which is incompatible with a State that defines itself as humanist.
She added that normalizing this type of violence has social effects, desensitizing people to suffering and reinforcing aggressive behaviors.
The Animal Welfare Regulations of Tepic, approved between 2022 and 2023, prohibit spectacles involving animal cruelty, including bullfights, cockfights, and the use of live animals for violent training.
However, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) has shown a majority inclined to consider that the city council may have exceeded its authority in imposing these prohibitions.
Due to the absence of one justice during the vote, the Court will have to decide in a subsequent session whether the qualified majority of six votes necessary to approve the declaration of unconstitutionality has been reached.
If this ruling is issued, it could pave the way for these practices to be legally resumed in Tepic.
In 2022, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) had already invalidated a decree by the Congress of Nayarit that declared bullfighting and cockfighting as intangible cultural heritage, determining that states do not have the power to protect activities that involve animal abuse.
Nationally, these practices face a process of legal weakening. Cockfighting has been banned in several states, while bullfights face total, partial, or violence-free bans in various states.
The SCJN has maintained that no tradition can prevail over the constitutional protection of animals.
At the same time, a confrontation persists between sectors that defend these activities as part of cultural and economic identity, and animal protection organizations that advocate for their definitive elimination.
Main problems associated with bullfighting and cockfighting:
They cause prolonged physical and psychological suffering in animals, generally leading to death.
They are based on deliberate violence as a form of entertainment.
They violate the constitutional principle of animal protection and welfare.
They normalize cruelty and reduce social empathy toward suffering.
They generate legal conflicts between municipal, state, and federal regulations.
They have led to clandestine events in the face of local prohibitions.
In this context, the Supreme Court’s ruling will be crucial in defining the scope of municipal powers and the course Mexico will take regarding traditional spectacles that involve animal violence.
Source: infobae
