Overview: Colombia is one of Latin America's most biodiverse countries, home to extraordinary wildlife including jaguars, tapirs, and spectacled bears. It also has a complex animal welfare landscape — strong civil society pressure for reform coexisting with deeply embedded cultural practices and weak enforcement capacity.
Legal Framework
Colombia's Animal Welfare Law:
Colombia's Law 1774 of 2016 is one of Latin America's more comprehensive animal welfare laws:
Recognizes animals as "sentient beings" in the legal code — a major symbolic and legal step
Prohibits cruelty, maltreatment, and abandonment
Establishes criminal penalties for animal abuse (up to 1 year imprisonment; up to 3 years for aggravated cases)
Requires veterinary care for sick or injured animals
Significant exemption: Bullfighting, cockfighting, and coleo (lasso rodeo) explicitly excluded from animal cruelty provisions as "cultural expressions"
Constitutional Court upheld these exemptions while noting they may be subject to future review
Bullfighting
Colombia's Bullfighting Controversy:
Colombia is one of the few remaining countries with an active bullfighting tradition:
Major events in Bogotá (Santamaría), Medellín, Cali, and Manizales
Constitutional Court has both protected bullfighting as cultural heritage and created space for municipalities to ban it
Bogotá banned bullfighting in the 2010s under progressive mayors — then had ban overturned by Constitutional Court
Ongoing legal and political battles; public opinion increasingly opposed to bullfighting, especially younger urban Colombians
Animal welfare organizations and citizen campaigns actively seeking municipal bans
Coleo (Toros Coleados):
Coleo is a traditional Venezuelan/Colombian sport involving riders on horseback lassoing cattle by the tail to bring them to the ground:
Practiced particularly in the Llanos region (eastern plains)
Causes tail injuries, bruising, and acute stress in cattle
Deeply embedded in Llanero cultural identity; legal protection as cultural expression