ARCHIVED - Lorca residents could take macro-pig farm protest to the European Court of Human Rights

There are a million pigs in Lorca and residents of El Consejero say enough is enough!

The residents of the El Consejero rural district in the municipality of Lorca are prepared to take their case against a proposed macro-pig farm to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if necessary, according to Agustín Aznar, a spokesman for the platform group representing the community.

El Consejero is a few kilometres north-east of the city of Lorca, on the RM-701 road which leads to La Parroquia and the Almería towns of Vélez Rubio and Vélez Blanco, and in September the locals were up in arms over plans to build a large pig farm capable of housing up to 2,000 animals. A protest was staged at the historic “17 Arcos” aqueduct (an Item of Cultural Interest) which crosses the Real Acequia de Alcalá, and while it might be assumed that the discontent of locals is due solely to the rural smells which are associated with pig farms, but at the same time there is also genuine concern over the way in which “macro-farms” are being allowed to eat away at the forest and woodland which the protesters describe as the “lungs of Lorca”.

One of those leading the protest explained that people who live in the area acknowledge that they live in a rural community and are used to living alongside farms, but are against the huge livestock farming concerns which “fail to respect the environment”.

In addition, there are worries over whether the location of the pig farm above the aquifer of the Alto Guadalentín may lead to water being contaminated, and that part of the farm would be in the ZEPA birdlife protection zone of El Gigante-Pericay, despite the fact that construction has begun with all of the necessary municipal licences having been correctly issued.

In September local councillor Gloria Martín of the IU-Verdes party called for more controls to be imposed on the important pig farming sector in Lorca, pointing out that, in her view at least, the porcine population of one million being reared on 1,500 farms in the municipality is “enough”! However, no action has been forthcoming from the Town Hall and in consequence, with the opening of the establishment potentially only a month away, the residents are looking at the possibility of taking the matter to higher authorities.

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