A hunter.

(Illustration) -

Kirill Kukhmar / TASS / Sipa USA / SIPA

The Portuguese government on Tuesday (December 22) condemned a hunting party that took place last week in the Lisbon region, which it described as "an unacceptable crime".

This had aroused the indignation of political parties, associations and Internet users.

In question, a hunt which took place near the town of Azambuja, about sixty kilometers north of the Portuguese capital, in the fortified property of Torre Bela, an enclosure exceeding 1,000 hectares and among the largest of 'Europe.

👮🏻‍♂️Portugal investigará has died of 540 veados and xabarís 🦌🐗 has mans of 16 Spanish cazadores in Azambuja, Lisboa.


Segundo as primeiras investigacións os animais foron acurralados nunha finca e masacrados.


Logo, pendurárono todo nas redes sociais para indignación dos portugueses pic.twitter.com/RfRY6oj2jN

- Alberto Mancebo (@AlbertoMancebo) December 22, 2020

According to the publication of one of the participating hunters on the social network Facebook, since deleted in the face of the ire of Internet users, several hundred animals, wild boars and deer, have been slaughtered.

Accompanied by a photograph showing dozens of animal corpses lined up on the ground, it presented the following caption: “540 animals with 16 hunters in Portugal, a record during a super venaery”.

Sixteen Spanish hunters participated

“It is an unacceptable crime, an act of hatred that has nothing to do with hunting,” Portuguese Environment Minister Joao Pedro Matos Fernandes told TSF radio.

"The Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests [ICNF] will immediately revoke the hunting authorization for this property and with the investigation work done on the spot, will file a complaint with the prosecution, because the organizers and participating hunters will have to be sanctioned, ”he said.

"The Institute was not previously informed of the holding of this event," the ICNF said in a statement.

According to the weekly

Expresso

, this event was organized by the Spanish company Hunting Spain Portugal Monteros de La Cabra, specializing in hunting parties in the Iberian Peninsula, and brought together sixteen Spanish hunters for the occasion.

Contacted, she was not in a position to speak immediately.

"Killing for fun is quite simply inhuman"

On Monday, the animalist party PAN, which has four deputies in the Portuguese parliament, was the first to be indignant on social networks, declaring that "killing for fun is simply inhuman" and calling for "strict regulations for the sector hunting ”.

In the process, the Socialist Party, in government, and the PSD, a center-right party and the main opposition party, also lambasted this hunt and demanded explanations.

Our file on hunting

For his part, the president of the National Confederation of Portuguese Hunters, José Bernardino, spoke of “extermination” in an interview with the weekly

Sabado

.

"It is shameful and ethically it is despicable," he added.

Several other hunting associations have also expressed their dissatisfaction following this "massacre".

Miscellaneous

Moselle: The video of hunters taking a deer hidden in the parking lot of an unworthy supermarket

Miscellaneous

Cahors: A wild boar charges and injures two passers-by in the city center

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