Executive Summary

Law 84 is the main animal welfare law in Colombia. It provides a detailed definition of cruelty acts towards animals and establishes a duty of care onto animal owners. It is positive that the legislation surrounding the use of animals for research purposes mandates the approval of experiments using live animals by an ethics committee. Since the API was first published in 2014, Colombia has showed progress in various areas related to animal welfare. For instance, Law 1638 of 2013 has banned the use of wild animals in circuses. Furthermore, Law 1774 of 2016 amended Law 84 and added a paragraph to the Civil Code, recognising animals as sentient beings. More recently, in April 2019, the House of Representatives unanimously approved Bill 120/2019, which bans all animal testing for cosmetic products and their ingredients. If enacted, the ban would be applicable to all cosmetics manufactured within Colombia and imported into the country. At the time of writing, this Bill has been presented to the Senate. If the Senate approves the Bill, the law will come into force 12 months later.

However, there remains room for improvement in many areas related to animal welfare. Notably, Law 84 exempts bullfighting and cockfighting from cruelty considerations. Furthermore, there is a lack of species-specific regulations surrounding the rearing of farm animals, and the treatment of stray animals. Humane slaughter is also not mandated in legislation. The exploitation of animals for the fur industry is also allowed. Other forms of entertainment using animals are allowed.

Responsibility for animal welfare is divided across multiple Ministries and government bodies. The Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development has responsibility for wild animals, while the Ministry of Public Health is in charge of scrutinising experiments that intend to use live animals. The Colombian Institute of Agriculture, part of the Ministry of Agriculture, promotes the work of the OIE. However, there is no Ministry dedicated to animal welfare, and there is a lack of a central authority dedicated to developing policy on animal protection in Colombia. 

The Government of Colombia is urged to ban the worst forms of confinement for animals reared in farming and to mandate humane slaughter for all livestock animal species. In addition, the Government of Colombia is strongly encouraged to fully ban fur farming, which is inherently cruel and causes pain, distress and suffering to animals. The Government of Colombia is urged to outlaw the culling of stray animal populations, and to implement spay-and-neuter campaigns as a tool to control stray animal populations. Building upon the 2013 ban on the use of wild animals in circuses, the Government of Colombia is strongly encouraged to ban the use of all animals for entertainment which cause animal suffering. As culture should not be an excuse for animal cruelty, the Government of Colombia is strongly encouraged to remove the exemptions in Law 84 allowing bullfighting and cockfighting. Such practices are inherently cruel and should be outlawed. Overall, the Government of Colombia is strongly encouraged to align its current legislation with OIE standards. Responsibility for animal welfare should be allocated to a Ministry, and a specific government body should enact and assess the implementation of animal protection legislation. Such a government body should include representatives from animal welfare organisations. Further legal and policy recommendations are associated with each indicator and contained in the relevant sections of this report.