A Spanish politician with a love of hunting has caused uproar after he posed for a picture with a pair of freshly sliced-off deer testicles on his head.
With blood on his shirt and face, Carlos Delgado smiles at the camera – but animal rights activists aren’t so happy.
Delgado is Minister of Tourism for the Balearic Islands, which includes the popular resorts of Ibiza, Majorca, Minorca, and Formentera, and one campaigner argued that the picture promotes the wrong image.
Politician Delgado's controversial picture sparked uproar
Chesús Yuste, of the Parliamentary Association in Defence of Animals, told the Daily Mail (which carries a shot of him posing with a rifle over the animal's carcass) that the picture represented animal abuse.
He said: “This kind of action should disappear for the good of society and for the mental health of all. This is harming Spain’s image and dragging the country back to the 11th Century.
“He is a minister for tourism, but what kind of tourism is he promoting here?”
However, Delgado has defended the picture, which was taken in 2009 when he was mayor of Calvia Town Hall in Mallorca and first published in the island’s Última Hora newspaper.
Speaking on a Spanish TV show, he said: "The photos are with a group of friends from Mallorca, are images taken in a friendship, a family album have been taken and delivered daily. It is a private matter.”
Not any more it isn’t, as the photo has gone viral and stirred up considerable debate in Spain.