Paquita Muñoz, the councillor with environment responsibilities, said that incidents and problems with goats have been continuing and growing. The high number of goats had led to these incidents and to the over-eating of vegetation and crops in the finca. The town hall, wishing to recover the traditional use of the finca, therefore raised the issue with the species protection service at the ministry, as it is the body responsible for controlling goat populations.
The town hall has also explained in a statement that there is a recognised problem with the proliferation of feral non-native goats in the Tramuntana and that the effects can be devastating on the ecosystem. "When an invasive species increases in an uncontrolled way, it attacks the ecosystem and jeopardises other species. The town hall was therefore obliged to carry out this action."
The consortium for the recovery of fauna was put in charge of shooting the goats, which were left for scavenger birds such as the black vulture.
This type of action has been common in the Balearics. But when there was a cull on the island of Es Vedra off Ibiza a year ago, there was a good deal of protest from animal-rights groups who in recent years have been getting town halls to declare their municipalities free of animal abuse.
There was such a declaration by Calvia in January 2015. It was proposed by PSOE, then in opposition and now leading the administration, and later ratified by a motion presented by the Esquerra Oberta (Open Left). This said that Calvia is a friend of animals and is respectful of their rights.
11 comments
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Surely there are poor farmers on the island who would welcome additional livestock free of charge - problem solved.
Frank, the original photo shows a dead goat, very upsetting it was too.
Upsetting photograph ????? What am I missing, it's a picture of a goat standing on a rock ...
Looked like an instant death to me, and the suggestion that these nimble-footed mountain goats could be easily caught is surely nonsense. I wonder how many of the bleeding hearts brigade wear leather shoes or belts without worrying too much about what that involves.
Clearly these appalling excuses for human beings have never heard of relocation.
Simon, it's not a case of leeway (or not). The photo is (was) unpleasant, but then the subject isn't pleasant either. If some people find it offensive, then it has been changed.
I don´t particularly like the photo either, but what I think should be remembered is that the DB is a sister paper, i.e. owned by, the local Ultima Hora, which published the same photo in their spanish edition (see below). One must presume that Jason sometimes has little leeway about what he can and what he cannot publish in the, basically, english edition of the spanish paper. http://ultimahora.es/noticias/part-forana/2017/02/04/246264/govern-ajuntament-calvia-matan-tiros-centenar-cabras-salvajes-galatzo.html
To the editor; I find this photo absolutely disgusting as I'm sure the majority of your readers do, surly journalism on our peaceful island dosent need to display such a graphic photo, the children and all of today are subjected to enough visual terror on TV etc, why put this story up that this kind of thing is the norm, its not, ok culling sometime's is necessary, please inform us if you must in a more educational way.
Shot ? More like killed using the Halal method, to keep you know who happy.
Why not just catch and castrate the male goats ? Surely a more humane method of keeping numbers in check. I must say we regularly walk in this area and have not seen more goats here than in other rural areas. I dread to think what we we will see when we next walk the area.