[JURIST] The Supreme Court of India [official website] on Tuesday banned a popular bull fighting event at this year’s harvest festival in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The decision comes in response to protesters who claim that the sport of Jallikattu, in which men chase bulls to grab prizes off their horns, amounts to animal cruelty. The court had banned the sport [JURIST report] in 2014, but the Environment Ministry said the event could take place this year. The court ordered [AP report] the Environment Ministry to respond to protesters’ petition to ban the sport permanently [PETA report].

Animal rights remain a contentious issue around the world. Recently, a US court ruled that a monkey could not own [NPR report] the copyright to a “selfie.” In 2014 an Argentine court unanimously ruled that an orangutan is a “non-human person” [JURIST report] with a legal right to freedom. In 2013 the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] held that a ban on an advertisement by an animal rights group did not violate [JURIST report] freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In 2012 the ECHR upheld [JURIST report] a German injunction preventing the activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) [advocacy website] from using Holocaust images in an animal rights poster campaign. In 2010 the US Supreme Court ruled [JURIST report] that a federal law banning depictions of animal cruelty violates the First Amendment [text] of the US Constitution.