The Spanish love doing Living Nativity Scenes; i.e., they use real people and animals, and there has never been a problem, till now…

The Belén Viviente in Cuevas del Almanzora had its full quota of animals, amongst them a very small donkey, which, it appears was attacked by unknown individuals with stick… for fun. The donkey suffered bruises and cuts.

According to several locals who had gone along to visit the Belén they discovered that a gang of youths had been beating the unfortunate animal until two people chased them off. These locals saw that the donkey had blood on several parts of its body, including its face.

Social media buzzed with indignation and anger when the incident became known, whilst the municipal police plunged on with their investigations.

This social media surge opened up an online debate over the use of animals in nativity scenes with the debate split between those against the use of animals under these circumstance or any other public display, whilst others thought it was more important to track the thugs down and put them behind bars.

The fact is that Cuevas has been doing these nativity scenes for many, many years, using donkeys, ducks, mules etc, and they have never had a problem of this kind.

(News: Cuevas del Almazora, Almeria, Andalucia)