Avícola Ballester threatens animal rights activists with a lawsuit if they do not retract

ManacorAvícola Son Perot and Avícola Ballester announce that this Thursday they will take legal action against Kike Gimeno, spokesperson for Satya Animal, for his statements regarding a possible salmonella risk in eggs from the Mirabò farm. The companies will file a conciliation claim this Thursday, demanding that he retract his statements, and they assert that if he does not, they will take criminal action.

Gimeno had stated this Wednesday that it was “highly probable” that the salmonella detected in 2025 in one of the sheds at the reported Mirabò farm had spread, affecting the entire production. ARDE and Satya Animal have requested that Public Health withdraw Mirabò eggs from the market and issue a health alert. The organizations base their request on images recorded at the farm in July and on a veterinary report warning that the documented conditions could facilitate the transmission of infectious agents.

In a statement, Avícola Ballester and Avícola Son Perot, which share the same sole administrator, maintain that in 2025 salmonella was detected in an isolated manner on a fan at the farm and that they applied the sanitary protocols to eliminate it. They also state that the Department of Agriculture inspected the Mirabò, Es Caparó, and Ses Cisternes facilities on Tuesday, and that the reports were “satisfactory” and only noted “minor corrections.” The Government sent inspectors to Mirabò following the complaint, and the Minister of Agriculture explained that he would assess whether the images could justify the opening of administrative proceedings.

The companies also assert that on Tuesday they filed a document with the Prosecutor's Office to find out if there are any actions against them. They state that they are not aware that the organizations' complaint has reached the courts, as had already been pointed out by ARA Balears. ARDE and Satya Animal, however, have communicated that they transferred the facts to the Prosecutor's Office and the Department of Agriculture.

The companies' response comes after ARDE and Satya Animal made public two complaints in one week against the group's farms in Manacor. The first points to Mirabò, with 40,000 hens, due to the presence of what the organizations describe as decomposing carcasses, injured animals, and eggs with mites and cockroaches. The second denounces the Es Caparó farm, where, according to the images and the veterinary report presented by the organizations, there are dead and injured hens, some trapped among the excrement.

The company also claims that the only complaint against Avícola Son Perot regarding the Llucmajor farm, in 2025, was dismissed by the courts. In June 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture proposed a fine of 200,100 euros and ordered precautionary measures, including the suspension of activity in one warehouse and the immobilization of eggs.

The companies further state that they are maintaining a lawsuit for the violation of fundamental rights against the publishing company of eldiario.es and that they are preparing a civil claim for damages regarding information they consider unfounded.