The Federal Supreme Court (STF) unanimously decided last Thursday (11) to maintain the authorization to transport live animals in the city of Santos (SP).
In judging the Arguments of Non-Compliance with Fundamental Precept (ADPF) 514 and 516, the Plenary of the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the rule of the Municipality of Santos (SP) that prohibited the transportation of live loads in urban areas and urban expansion of the municipality .
The actions, authored by the Brazilian National Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA) and the Brazilian Federation of Associations of Breed Breeders, respectively, questioned Articles 1 and 3 of Complementary Law 996/2018 of Santos ( SP), which amended the Municipality’s Code of Posture (Law 3,531 / 1968) to prohibit the transportation of live loads in urban areas and urban expansion of the municipality in cages or vehicles.
The entities affirmed that the prohibition would make the export of livestock production from Brazilian rural producers via the Port of Santos impossible and would violate the constitutional principles of free competition and free enterprise.
In April this year, Minister Edson Fachin (rapporteur) granted injunctions in the two actions, to be upheld by the Plenary, to suspend the validity of the devices. He noted the presence of the necessary requirements for the granting of a precautionary measure: the legal plausibility of the request, since the rule questioned faced the competence of the Union to discipline the matter, and the danger in the delay of the jurisdictional rendering, before the arrival, at the time , of seven ships in the Brazilian territory with live loads.
“The delay in filing will bring serious damages, both from the economic perspective and from the protection and welfare bias of the animals involved in commercial activity,” Minister Fachin said at the time.
In the analysis of the referendum of the injunctions, the rapporteur maintained the basis of his monocratic decision. According to Fachin, the municipality could not have legislated on matters of competence of the Union. All the ministers present at the session endorsed the injunctions and, after that, agreed to convert the referendums into a merits judgment, judging definitively ADPFs.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.