by Raina Cheng
According to a Vox article, Mexico recently included animal welfare in its constitution. The new laws mainly “consider the ability [of animals] to express these natural behaviors as part of their welfare.” They also ensure that animal welfare is included in school curriculums, ensuring that the future generations of Mexico will grow up understanding the importance of animal rights. Despite the vague language used in the new laws, this is a huge advancement for animal welfare worldwide, as not many countries include it in their constitutions. This shows how Mexico, having a growing meat industry, is starting to take animal welfare seriously. Another big step Mexico took in ensuring animal welfare is including farm animals in the constitution. Farm animals are often overlooked in laws protecting animals.
Implementing the new laws will be challenging. The new laws will interfere with business interests within the Mexican meat industry, which might lead to some opposition. Finding a common ground between different animal rights activists will also be a challenge. However, many politicians of different parties support the new constitutional laws. The welfare of animals has few oppositions in the government.
Nevertheless, whether the new constitutional laws have an actual impact on animal welfare in Mexico or not, it is still a huge step for animal rights globally. With Mexico as an example, governments from other countries might be influenced to consider the safety and well-being of animals with more importance.
The United States is the second largest meat production country in the world, every year producing 59.96 million metric tons of beef only. Although the United States already has various animal protection laws in all 50 states, not all of them are effective at preventing animal cruelty. Being such a big meat producer, animal welfare should be viewed with more importance. With the United States being Mexico’s neighbor, we should learn from Mexico’s successes and failures when implementing animal cruelty laws.