An animal welfare bill now before the Legislative Assembly would require veterinary supervision for anyone who breeds animals commercially, impose new operating standards on shelters and animal displays, and raise the maximum fine for the most serious cruelty offenses to more than ¢23 million, roughly $51,000 at the current exchange rate.
Frente Amplio legislator María Eugenia Román presented the measure, filed as expediente 25.645, as a comprehensive overhaul of the country’s Animal Welfare Law, known as Law 7451. That statute has governed the treatment of animals since 1994 and last saw substantial changes in 2017, when lawmakers approved prison terms of up to three years for killing a domestic animal.
Román and the bill’s backers argue the existing framework has fallen behind, leaving gaps in how it handles commercial breeding and the minimum standards required of shelters and foster homes. At the center of the proposal is the legal recognition of animals as sentient beings capable of feeling pain, fear and distress.
The text defines the rights of animals as the right to good treatment, respect and protection derived from that nature, language the bill’s sponsors say draws on rulings from Costa Rica’s Constitutional Chamber and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. “Animals are not objects, they are beings capable of feeling pain, fear and anguish, and the law that protects them has gone more than three decades without being updated to that reality,” Román said.
One of the clearest changes would fall on people and businesses that breed domestic or domesticated animals for profit. Article 15 of the proposal states that any establishment or person engaged in what it calls the forced reproduction of animals for commercial purposes, including their sale, would need formal veterinary oversight, known as a regencia veterinaria, and would have to operate under regulations issued by the National Animal Health Service, or SENASA.
Smaller breeders working without a supervising veterinarian would face the greatest pressure to formalize their operations or risk sanction. Dog and cat breeders, though, are already adjusting to newer requirements: a separate executive decree, 45344-MAG, took effect in June and requires SENASA authorization and veterinary oversight for anyone breeding or selling those animals. The bill would place comparable obligations in the law itself and extend them to a far wider range of animals and activities.
Pet stores would not automatically fall under that requirement simply for selling animals. Shops that breed the animals themselves, or keep them in cages, display cases or other conditions considered harmful to their health, could draw closer scrutiny. The bill would also set standards for animal shelters and casas cuna, the informal foster homes that care for animals awaiting adoption, which the sponsors say the current law regulates too loosely.
Some of the most visible effects would be felt at community fairs and festivals. The proposal would treat the use of animals in prohibited cultural or festival activities, mechanical rides and fairground carousels as a serious offense, and it would bar the use of wildlife in public or private shows. Using animals as prizes, raffle items or promotional giveaways would likewise be prohibited. The bill would further forbid keeping dogs or cats permanently on balconies, rooftops, patios, in basements, inside vehicles or in similar unsuitable spaces.
The reform sorts violations into three levels. Minor offenses would carry fines of one to three base salaries, serious offenses three to five, and very serious offenses five to 50. Costa Rica’s base salary, the reference figure used to calculate legal penalties, stands at ¢462,200 for 2026, as set by the Consejo Superior del Poder Judicial.
That places minor fines between roughly $1,020 and $3,060, and the maximum penalty at ¢23.1 million, or about $51,000, at a current exchange rate of about ₡453 to the dollar. The most serious category would cover intentionally killing a domestic animal, using unqualified personnel or improper methods for euthanasia, training animals to fight and breaking rules on animal experimentation. Money collected through the fines would go to SENASA to strengthen its enforcement capacity.
The measure does not appear to target toros a la tica, the Costa Rican bullring tradition in which the animal is not killed and riders and spectators enter the ring with it. Those events operate under a separate set of taurine regulations covering organizers, veterinary controls and public safety, and nothing made public so far indicates the bill would repeal that framework. Bulls, treated as livestock, would also fall outside the proposal’s restriction on wildlife shows.
Expediente 25.645 has yet to be assigned to a legislative committee, where lawmakers can take testimony, propose amendments and weigh its effects. It would then need approval in two separate votes by the full Assembly before becoming law, leaving any new obligations for breeders, shelters and festival organizers some way off. Its reach and its financial penalties, though, are likely to draw close attention once the committee stage begins.
