Former prime
minister Silvio Berlusconi has infuriated Italy's meat industry by joining a
vegetarian campaign and "adopting" five lambs that would have been
butchered for Easter.
A video by
the Italian League in Defense of Animals and the Environment, showing
Berlusconi cuddling, kissing and feeding the lambs with a baby's bottle, was
circulated widely on social media over the weekend.
The
80-year-old four-times prime minister was filmed in his parkland estate in
front of a sign saying "Defend life, choose a vegetarian Easter",
while a scrolling message urged viewers to "Be like him. He saved five
lambs from the Easter slaughter."
Berlusconi
was expelled from the Senate in 2013 following a conviction for tax fraud, but
his Forza Italia party is still the third or fourth most popular in Italy with
around 12 percent of the vote, according to opinion polls.
Italians
traditionally eat lamb or goat on Easter Sunday but consumption has declined
sharply over the last five years due to an economic slump and growing success
of vegetarian campaigns.
Italy's
butchers' lobby Assocarni attacked the billionaire media tycoon and called on
advertisers to boycott his television channels and publications.
"It's
incredible that even though he is a business person he is contributing to
damaging the meat industry to try to get the votes of animal lovers," it
said in a statement.
Several
newspapers reported last year that Berlusconi had become a vegetarian. He
responded in a statement that he had "never made any declaration on this,
either in public or in private", neither confirming nor denying the
reports.
Berlusconi
has worn a pacemaker for a decade and underwent open heart surgery in June last
year to replace a defective aortic valve.
(Reuters)
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