PADILLA, Andrea

Andrea Padilla (Bogota 1978) who was at the UPF CAE in 2017 as a student is now a Colombian Senator devoted to animals with a PhD in Law from Universidad de los Andes, a Master in Criminology from Universitè Catholique de Louvain (funded with an Alban grant in 2004), another Master in Complex Society Governance from UAB and a degree in Psychology from Universidad Javeriana. She published Derecho Sintiente. Los animales no humanos en el derecho latinoamericano (Bogota 2021) and numerous articles and opinion columns on animal rights, restorative juvenile justice, and other topics.

As a Bogotá City Councillor (2020–2021), she led five district agreements—including a bullfighting ban, a vast cat and dog sterilizationprogramme, a prohibition of live-animal sales in public markets, support for animal protectors, or discouragement of cockfighting— and secured over 20 animal-protection provisions in city planning.

As a Senator of Colombia (2022–2026), she has advanced six national laws on sterilization policy, criminal sanctions for animal cruelty, protection for working dogs, regulation of pet-care services, public regional shelters, and mandatory animal-protection education. She also supported laws on wildlife transport and noise control, and chairs the Senate’s animal-rights caucus.

In 2025, after moving Yoko, the last captive chimpanzee in Colombia, to the Great Ape Project sanctuary in Sorocaba, Brazil, she introduced the Yoko Bill to end great-ape captivity and exotic-animal imports forever. Her CER Cats team sterilized over 1,500 feral and homeless cats. As Colombia’s spokesperson for AnimaNaturalis, she helping achieve major reforms such as banning wild animals in circuses and replacing animal-drawn vehicles.
She also founded Ruta Animal, which fed more than 22,000 animals during the Covid-19 pandemic and has provided over 10,000 free sterilizations across Colombia, having donated 300 million pesos of her Senate salary to this effort. In 2021 she received Peta Latino’s “Woman Defender of Animals” Award.

She also founded Ruta Animal, which fed more than 22,000 animals during the Covid-19 pandemic and has provided over 10,000 free sterilizations across Colombia, having donated 300 million pesos of her Senate salary to this effort. In 2021 she received Peta Latino’s “Woman Defender of Animals” Award.