Julia Tomkins Wisner
By putting animal welfare in its national constitution, Mexico leads the way in legal protections for farmed animals.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum signed animal welfare into the nation’s constitution.
Animal protection groups Igualdad Animal Mexico (a member group of The Open Wing Alliance), Humane Society International/Mexico, and Movimiento Conscienca campaigned for two years to attain this significant progress.
These reforms are historic: only nine countries in the world mention animals in their constitutions, albeit briefly. Mexico goes a step further, changing three separate articles of its constitution to include animal welfare. These changes empower the federal government to issue laws on animal welfare and protection, include animal welfare in the national educational curriculum, and prohibit the mistreatment of all animals—safeguarding their protection, adequate treatment, and conservation and care.
And though Mexico’s reforms do not explicitly mention farmed animals, they are intended to protect all animals—a crucial step for Mexico’s Congress to then pass a comprehensive animal welfare law. For the law to be successful, animal advocates in Mexico are working to specify the bill’s language, as well as the details of its active implementation and enforcement.
To learn more about how you can drive change for farmed animals through policy campaigns, sign up to volunteer with The Humane League.
