Bogota: Capital bans killing, animal abuse at bullfights

The Colombian capital Bogota, one of the oldest bullfighting cities in the Americas, is set to ban the mistreatment and killing of animals in order to definitively prohibit the event.

The move increases pressure on a spectacle that has long been regarded as part of the South American country's cultural heritage, but has been classified by animal welfare advocates as cruel.

City Council bans mutilation and killing at bullfights

The Bogota City Council backed a bill that bans the use of devices that «tear, cut, mutilate, injure, burn or harm animals in any way, as well as killing a bull,» said Andrea Padilla, a member of the Green Alliance party, to reporters.

The bill would also limit the bullfighting calendar to a maximum of three events per year at the Santamaria Arena, which is operated by the city hall.

While the authority to ban bullfighting remains exclusively with the Colombian legislature, the City Council hopes that removing the most spectacular element of the event will lead to a definitive end of the blood sport.

Bogota's left-wing mayor Claudia Lopez, a member of the Green Alliance party, said the measures would be announced within a few days.

«We want to respect all forms of life,» Lopez wrote on Twitter. The president of the Bogota bullfighting association, Juan Bernardo Caicedo, told reporters that the Council's plan was illegal and «unconstitutional.»

He said his organisation would use the full power of the courts «to pursue all necessary legal remedies.»

Colombia one of the last bullfighting countries

Bullfights have been held in Bogotá since 1931, except during a four-year ban imposed in 2012 by a former left-wing mayor, Gustavo Petro.

In a 2018 ruling, Colombia's Constitutional Court decided that bullfighting was part of the country's cultural traditions, exempting the spectacle from animal cruelty laws.

Colombia is one of only eight countries in the world where bullfighting still takes place, alongside Ecuador, France, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Spain, and Venezuela. Even in these countries, laws are increasingly restricting the spectacle. In Colombia, bullfights are held in Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, and Manizales.