A vaquejada e a vedação à crueldade animal: a inconstitucionalidade da Emenda Constitucional nº 96/2017

Abstract

This article aims to demonstrate the unconstitutionality of Amendment No. 96/2017, which allows sports practices that use animals, as long as they are considered cultural manifestations (the case of "vaquejada"), right after the historic judgment of the Declaratory Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI) No. 4,983 by the Federal Court of Justice (STF) in which the Ceará law that regulated "vaquejadas" was declared unconstitutional, after the understanding that the practice is inherently cruel and violates the Federal Constitution. Therefore, the research is justified in the face of the conflict between the legal understanding of the Federal Court and the National Congress since if the existing and intrinsic animal cruelty present in the "vaquejada" has already been recognized by the STF, there is no way to have provisions that make an exception for the occurrence of this practice and neither regulations of the activity. Our goal is to bring greater legal certainty to the application of art. 225, §1, VII of the Federal Constitution of 1988, which prelects the prohibition of animal cruelty and, in this way, guarantees the dignity of non-human animals. Thus, through jurisprudential analysis in the field of animal protection, mainly the most emblematic and relevant decisions in the area, as well as a detailed analysis of the judgment of the ADI No. 4,983 and Constitutional Amendment nº 96/2017, it was possible to make relevant considerations on the disrespect of the rule to the formal limits of the Federal Constitution of 1988, as well as the legal uncertainty brought with the consequent production of the so-called “backlash” effect.