A change to this year's Puck Fair in Co Kerry is hopefully 'the beginning of the end' for the use of live goats, one activist has said.

The goat at the centre of the festival will play a much smaller part for the first time.

The tradition usually sees a goat spend three days and nights in a cage over the town of Killorglin.

This year the goat will be raised for an hour on the opening night on August 10th, and then return for a similar period of time on the closing day of the fair.

Animals Behind Closed Doors Founder Gerry Boland told The Hard Shoulder this change is a good one.

"I'm very pleased that the committee has made the decision they've made, I think it's an enormous move forward," he said.

"I'm not pleased that the goat is still going up, and I don't want to be petty about it, but I'm still not pleased that the goat is going up in a cage... even if it is for an hour.

"It's an immense improvement, other than putting the goat up for three days which was appalling".

'Moving with the times'

Mr Boland said he hopes this is the beginning of the end for the live goat tradition.

"I think this is a massive step forward; I hope it doesn't go the other way - that in a few years' time, we'd be discussing this and the goat is going up for two hours a day," he said.

"I hope it's the beginning of the end of this situation.

"I see the committee moving with the times and that is what's happening - we are evolving as a species.

"What's happening with Puck Fair is it's a public display of what I would call cruelty.

"I know a lot of people won't agree with that... we don't see a lot of factory farms, but we do see a goat above a town in a cage.

"The goat clearly can't be happy being taken from a mountain and put in a cage above a town full of people".

'King Puck' in his cage perched over Killorglin, Co Kerry in 2015. Picture by: RollingNews.ie

Mr Boland said he believes it is possible to cherish tradition and move forward.

"There are lots of traditions that we've abandoned a long time ago because we couldn't just do it any longer," he said.

"We do move on, and we can't ignore the fact that science and our own common sense is telling us a lot more about animals than we ever thought before.

"We have done tremendously awful things to animals over the years for tradition," he added.

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Main image: King Puck during the 2014 Puck Fair in Killorglin, Co Kerry. Picture by: Design Pics Inc / Alamy Stock Photo