Fiesta 'spoiled' as villagers barred from tossing goat
In the annual tug of war between animal rights activists and the people of a small Spanish village, the goat won yesterday.
For the first time in years, Manganeses de la Polvorosa, a village 155 miles north-west of Madrid, held its patron saint's celebration without throwing a live goat 50ft from the church bell tower.
"That's Spain today," a tipsy villager muttered disgustedly to his wife after men leading a goat on a rope said they would toss it from the tower only if the crowd accompanied them. No one volunteered.
The city council warned that anyone who helped to toss a live goat would be subject to fines ranging from 250,000 pesetas to 2.5m pesetas (about £900-£9,000).
"We're angry," said a mechanic from a nearby village who has attended the celebration for years. "It's a tradition and the people are disgusted that the ecologists have put a stop to it."
The town council's announcement that the goat would not be tossed this year did not stop several hundred people from gathering below the bell tower in the tiny square in front of the stone church. A band played and several dozen people danced, dressed in carnival masks and colourful costumes.
As the afternoon wore on and it grew dark, people began chanting, "Toss the goat! Toss the goat!"
Cheers broke out when several young men arrived with the goat, but one of them told the crowd the "ecologists" wanted them to kill the goat first.
"Do you want us to kill the goat?" he shouted through a magaphone.
"No!" the crowd roared.
The town was fined about £100 by the regional government after the National Association of Animal Welfare and Protection filed a complaint.
Protests in 1992 persuaded the local governor to ban the toss. Villagers used ropes to lower the goat that year, but a year later the ropes were abandoned and the tradition was resumed.
The origins of the ritual are unclear but, according to one legend, a priest's goat - whose milk fed the poor - accidentally fell from the bell tower and was saved by villagers holding a blanket.
The toss also serves as an initiation ceremony for young men and women who have just reached military enlistment age. Traditionally, they carry the goat to the tower and catch it in a tarpaulin below when it is thrown. Last year the goat survived unhurt. AP