Excerpt Federal Criminal Code of Mexico.pdf (219.03 KB)
The Federal Criminal Code contains a few provisions regarding animals, more specifically wildlife. It contains a dedicated chapter to biodiversity, where it gives special protection to wildlife. It does not mention protection of domestic animals. However, it contains provisions prohibiting dog fighting (Article 419 Bis). According to Article 1, this code applies to federal crimes committed within the country. (Federal crimes committed overseas are regulated in articles 2-4 of the same code).
Chapter II contains provisions regarding crimes against biodiversity. Article 417 prohibits the introduction and trafficking of forest resources, living or dead wild flora or fauna, their products, or derivatives. The punishment for this crime is 1 to 9 years of imprisonment and monetary fines from 1 to 3,000 days, which is higher than most state anti-cruelty laws.
Breeding, training, owning, transporting, buying, or selling dogs for activities involving fighting between two or more dogs are some of the activities prohibited under Article 419 Bis. Penalties range from six months to five years. In addition, this article punishes the organization, promotion, advertisement, sponsorship, or selling of tickets for dog fighting events and attending or enabling a minor to attend or witness a dogfighting event.
Article 420 contains provisions regarding crimes against aquatic life. It prohibits the capture, damage, or killing of turtles and marine mammals and the collecting and storing of their products or by-products. It also prohibits the capture, transformation, collection, transportation, or damage of specimens of aquatic species declared in the closed season. Article 420, II Bis prohibits the intentional capture, transformation, collection, transportation, destruction, or trade of the aquatic species abalone, shrimp, sea cucumber, and lobster, within or outside the closed periods, without the corresponding authorization, in quantities that exceed 10 kilograms of weight. The hunting, fishing, or capture by prohibited means of any specimen of a species of wild fauna or that endangers the biological viability of a population or wild species is also punished under this article.
Article 420 Bis establishes punishment of two to 10 years in prison and monetary fines for damaging wetlands, mangroves, lagoons, creeks, swamps, or coral reefs. Introducing exotic species of flora or fauna that damage the ecosystem or hinder, alter, or affect native or migratory species in the natural cycles of their reproduction or migration.
Title 22nd, “Crimes against persons and their patrimony,” Chapter I, titled “Theft,” establishes in its article 381 that a person who “commits the crime of cattle rustling, who by himself or by an intermediary seizes one or more heads of cattle, without the consent of whoever can legally dispose of them.” In the terms of this article, the following species are considered cattle: bovine, Equidae, donkeys, mules, ovine, caprine, porcine, colonies of bees in an apiary, as well as that domesticated, wild, hoofed, major cattle or minor cattle.
Lastly, it is important to mention that virtually all states, with the exception of Chiapas, have enacted anti-cruelty status.