Dogs for adoption at the Son Reus pound.

Dogs for adoption at the Son Reus pound. | Miquel Borras

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma09/12/2016 00:00
TW
0

The Esquerra Unida (United Left) party has launched a campaign to try and stop the "compulsive buying" of animals as Christmas gifts. "Don't buy, adopt" is the title of the campaign, and its coordinator, Guillermo Amengual, says that the purchasing of animals is cruel and fosters a business of mistreatment of animals, which are deprived of their liberty and treated as mere commodities.

"In some cases there are animals which come from illegal breeders, and their sale ends up with them being abandoned. Most of these animals are ultimately put down at municipal pounds." The party is therefore wanting a Christmas without giving animals as presents. It has proposed adoption as the alternative.

Amengual adds that some 15,000 animals are abandoned in the Balearics each year. His party wants greater efforts made to put an end to this problem. It also wants a ban on the sale of animals in shops and the introduction of a "zero slaughter" policy.

Guillermo Amengual is, incidentally, the same Guillermo Amengual who is the spokesperson for the Mallorca Sense Sang (Majorca Without Blood) anti-bullfighting campaign.