Up to 10 years in prison will be applied to people who mistreat animals in Yucatán after the state Congress approved reforms to the state Political Constitution and the Penal Code to create a new Animal Protection and Welfare Law.
Unlike the rule that applied before, the current law extends the punishment for abuse to any vertebrate animal and not only to pets or “companion animals.”
However, it leaves out the mistreatment or murder of animals when it is due to the “interaction” of an art, trade, or profession, that is, it leaves out bullfighting, to mention one of the activities that the norm “does not cover.”
This law was colloquially named “Rufo Law”, in memory of a little dog that was killed with a machete in August 2023 in the Chuburná neighborhood of Mérida.
This new law criminalizes animal cruelty and stipulates up to 10 years in prison as punishment, in addition to fines. Likewise, it restricts the possibility for the person accused of animal cruelty to access a criterion of conditional suspension of the judicial process, forcing a trial to be held and a sentence to be issued.
TYT Newsroom
