Joshua Parfitt
A BRITISH expat is campaigning to save a herd of cows after a local farmer’s electricity and water supplies were ‘cruelly’ cut off by the town hall.
Julie Crowson, 59, is supporting Jose Luis Sanchez Real, 56, whose 485 dairy cows are facing ‘almost certain death’.
It comes after the farm in Rota had its water supply cut off without warning following ‘a string of complaints’ from neighbours.
To make matters worse, electricity was severed a few days later leaving the family desperate for a generator to milk their cows.
“Cutting off the water supply is just cruelty to animals,” Crowson told the Olive Press.
“I don’t care if the mayor comes after me, I don’t want the cows and a family to be destroyed.”
It’s not Crowson’s first battle with mayor Javier Arana after she thwarted his efforts to bring back bullfighting to the town two years ago.
The expat, who has lived in the town for 30 years, famously kissed a bull as part of her campaign to raise awareness.
She has now taken up the cause of farmer Jose, who has worked on the farm since he was 12.
According to the town hall, complaints of smell by nearby urbanisations, which have sprung up over the last decade, led to a court order forcing his relocation.
However, farmer Real insisted the council was merely planning to ‘slaughter’ his cows, give him money for the meat and charge him €31,000 for the service.
“They are threatening me, yet my cows have the best genetic indices in all of Andalucia. And while I know I must leave, it will cost me €1.5 million to rebuild my farm,” he told the Olive Press this week.
“I don’t have that kind of money.”
Mayor Arana, from the PSOE, defended the decision, telling Rota al Dia he had given Sanchez a ‘month’s warning’ about imminent cuts to provisions.
However the warning letter shown to this paper, dated November 29, did not specify any dates.
“With elections coming up on May 27 I imagine the mayor is hoping to fulfil a campaign pledge,” Crowson, who will be creating an online petition, added.
