“Brutal and culturally unacceptable” – this is how Plataforma Viver, a group of animal rights campaigners from Madeira and Porto Santo, has characterised the traditional rural pig slaughter known as “matança do porco”.
Their protest was prompted by the day of the Immaculate Conception – which takes place on December 8 – and is habitually celebrated by local people in Madeira slaughtering their pigs.
“Plataforma Viver does not accept that such an intelligent and sensitive animal as the pig should be slaughtered so brutally, publically and in cold-blood,” a member of the group, Miguel Santos, told Lusa news agency.
Santos explained that the ritual begins at dawn when the animal is “forcibly removed from its sty” and dragged, “amidst grunts of panic”, to the place where it is slain in front of a people who are often “soaked” in alcohol.
“We believe that making a public spectacle out of the death of an animal – cloaked as an identity trait for Madeira locals – is something culturally unacceptable in the 21st century,” he added.
Besides the “inhumanity” of the whole performance, Miguel Santos stressed its “illegality”. Any animal that is put down must first be sedated so that it does not feel pain and must be accompanied by a veterinarian – two conditions which are “systematically disrespected” at any “matança do porco”, he explained.
In name of the group, Santos demanded that the “regressive” ceremony be abolished once and for all, and suggested that the only way of changing mentalities is by introducing courses in ethics in schools to try and make future generations sensitive to this kind of issues.
Pig slaughtering rituals are still practiced, albeit illegally, in many rural areas of mainland Portugal.
