Proteção da cultura ou proteção da fauna? uma análise da farra do boi à luz da ponderação e da jurisprudência do STF

Abstract

The ox spree is a cultural manifestation displayed in coastal cities of Santa Catarina state, which origins is linked to tauromachy habits of Portuguese and Azorean colonizers. It’s a folkloric tradition that compounds the ox cycle in Brazil, as well as northeastern and southern rodeos. It consists in releasing the ox and provoke it in the most various ways, that goes from physical to psychic harassment, in order to chase it until the complete exhaustion, occasion when the ox is sacrificed and its meat is shared amongst the carousers. The present article analyzes the emblematic case of the ox spree, especially concerning the juridical dilemma consolidated in the conflict between precepts of fundamental rights, that is, the protection of the cultural heritage in contrast to protection to the fauna. The essay analyzes the concept of cultural heritage departing from a social and juridical basis and the article 216 of the 1988 Federal Constitution, as well as the concept of fauna, the constitutional meaning of cruelty and the juridical regime of the protection of fauna inserted in the article 225, §1º, VII of the Federal Constitution. The ox spree is focused under a historical and anthropological perspective, up to the repercussions in the media and amongst environmentalist groups from 1987 onwards. It still discusses the Law nº 9.605/98, which is about the environmental crimes and the paradigmatic decision of the Supreme Court of Justice about the popular spree, considering the proportionality and the weighing of rights.