Expatica news

Animal welfare group calls for Balearics boycott

5 August 2004

MADRID – The Spanish animal protection association, ANPBA, backed by groups in Britain and Germany, says it will be calling on tourists to boycott the Balearic Islands over what they call a planned “massacre” of goats in the mountains of Mallorca.

It says the Balearics regional government is planning to eliminate some 28,500 of the 40,000 goats because of the damage they are doing to the ecosystem.

This would be done by offering shooting licences to landowners, a scheme aimed at attracting tourist hunters to the island according to the director of the hunting organization Caza, Antoni Gómez.

To counter the project, ANPBA said on Thursday that it will launch an international campaign through the Internet calling on tourists to show their opposition to this “barbaric idea” by boycotting the islands.

Protestors will be asked to send emails of protest to the regional government and to Spanish tourism offices in Britain, Germany and other European countries.

Instead of shooting the animals, ANPBA has called for “humane methods” to control the animals’ population, such as sterilizing darts.

The idea of attracting hunters is “absurd”, the association adds, because  most of the goats are female and will be little use as horned trophies.

Gómez said that studies carried out by the Balearics government showed the optimum number of goats to prevent over-grazing was around 12,000.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news