This Wednesday morning, the last truckload of chickens from the Avícola Son Perot farm in Llucmajor departed for the Spanish mainland. According to owner Onofre Ballester, speaking to ARA Baleares, this means the Llucmajor poultry farm has completed the de-escalation plan ordered by the Balearic Government in August. The government set a deadline of December 31st for the Llucmajor farm to cull chickens until its population was reduced to 40,000 due to an investigation opened against the farm following complaints from neighbors and several animal rights organizations that published videos showing birds in poor condition. Ballester explained that there are currently only 40,000 chickens left on the farm, and the rest had to be transported to slaughterhouses on the mainland to comply with the measure, "since there aren't any in the Balearic Islands," he criticized. All of this is happening against a backdrop of increased egg consumption in Spain. Demand for eggs has risen by approximately 20% since 2019, an increase attributed to the perceived nutritional and health benefits they have gained in recent years, according to the latest data published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. For this reason, Ballester considers the regulation "the world turned upside down; we're killing hens and there's a shortage of eggs."

Onofre Ballester, owner of Avícola Ballester, explained to ARA Baleares that he has requested a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture, Joan Simonet, four times, but laments that he has received "no response." In recent years, the Balearic Government has sanctioned and opened investigations against the company for its operating farms. However, the owner has submitted various appeals and even requested the correction of official reports filed by the Executive. Adding to the tense relationship between the Executive and the company is the fact that the Government rejected Ballester's proposed mega-farm in Sineu and prohibited such facilities with more than 160,000 hens. Until January 17th of this year, there were no regulations limiting the number of birds on farms in the Balearic Islands, and Simonet drafted them. In any case, Ballester's project did not go ahead because the Government shelved its environmental authorization process, according to a report of urban planning incompatibility issued by the Sineu City Council.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and the Environment confirmed this Thursday the discovery of the first sea turtle nest of this season in the Balearic Islands, specifically on Can Pere Antoni beach in Palma. This is the second nesting incident, following the first case recorded in 2023. According to the Ministry, the discovery occurred on Thursday morning, when an Environmental Agent from the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge detected a trace of eggs in the sand. From there, the Species Protection Service protocol was quickly activated through the Marine Fauna Department of the Cofib (National Commission for the Protection of Animals), which confirmed the existence of the nest and counted a total of 77 eggs.