Pig slaughter coming up

SPAIN -- From November to February, thousands of fattened pigs are slaughtered in Spain on family farms, sometimes even in village homes. With a knife, as always, and with the animal squealing and struggling until it bleeds to death. It is a rural tradition that goes back a long way, but has nothing to do with Christmas, as some misinformed people believe. It appears St. Martin is honoured like that, as on this day is when most of the killing goes on.  An old saying goes: A cada cerdo le llega su San Martín  (Every pig gets its St. Martin's Day -- November 11 -- or, cutting the saint out of it, Everyone gets their comeuppance.)

While the custom is in fact forbidden by law, it is largely ignored, like so many others. The authorities find it practically impossible to control it, as the slaughter happens in private, with no veterinary intervention, as the law requires. There is a European directive dating back to 1993 that does allow the practice outside an official slaughterhouse, though it does require the animal to be stunned before it is knifed. Again, this is ignored everywhere. However, whatever this directive says, the practice -- and probably the law itself, though that is in legal dispute -- flouts other regulations on animal welfare. The tradition, say some historians, goes back to the 'reconquest' of Spain by Christians from the Moors. The latter were not allowed to eat pork in any form, so it became an ostentatious act to prove that the family was Christian -- even if they weren't, but it was better than the death prescribed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in the XVI century.

A more recent motive may well be 'the hunger years', known as la hambruna, which came after the Civil War (1936-1939), when there was very little food about. The pig is used in its entirety (See 'It's not choritso, it's choreetho'). A favourite dish in rural Andalucía, for example, is guiso de pata, a stew based on pig's trotters and chick peas, though these days they're more likely to use the cheek instead.

(Original source: El Pais, February, 2011)