20/09/2013 00:00
TW
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THE Balearic government will ask the Pollensa town council to stop using live cockerels and other animals in its Sant Antoni fiestas in January, according to ANPBA, the National Association for the Protection and Welfare of Animals. One of the highlights of the Sant Antoni fiestas is the chopping down of a pine tree at Ternelles.
The tree is trimmed of its branches and carried by local townsmen to the main square, where it is erected.
A live cockerel is placed at the top, and whoever climbs the “greasy pole” wins it as a prize.
A spokesman for the animal rights association said it had received notification from the agriculture ministry that “the use of animals in fiestas, where they could be subject to suffering, is banned by law.” The exception is when it can be shown that it is a tradition dating back more than 100 years. However, this year, both the councils of Ses Salines and Can Picafort, which both hold duck catching competitions during their annual fiestas (in which ducks are thrown into the sea to be caught by swimmers) used rubber ducks instead of live ones. The change of heart came after both councils had been fined in several successive years for using live animals.
The ANPBA spokesman said it was necessary for the Pollensa council to use a model cockerel, “to maintain the symbology but without using a live animal.” He added that his association had complained to the director general of Agriculture, Joan Carles Torrens, on January 23, but as no answer had been received, they complained to the Ombudsman. As a result of this appeal, the director general wrote back saying that the law on the proection of animals forbad the use of live animals in the fiestas. Nobody was available for comment at the Pollensa town council yesterday.
Sant Antoni or St Anthony is the patron saint of animals and farm and domestic animals all over the island are taken in procession to church to be blessed on his feast day, January 17.