• Society.Hunting is once again prohibited in National Parks

  • Special The owners of hunting in Spain

A hunt organized last weekend in a farm in the Portuguese municipality of

Azambuja

- about 40 kilometers from

Lisbon

- in which more than 540 animals (mostly deer and wild boar) were killed by 16 Spanish hunters has generated an enormous indignation in

Portugal

, to which strong criticism from political parties, local authorities and environmental associations in the country has been added.

All this has led to the official opening of an investigation by the Portuguese Government to find out the circumstances in which this controversial hunting act took place.

The hunting was carried out on December 17 and 18 and the Portuguese Executive has already announced the immediate suspension of the hunting license in the area.

The controversy has arisen after some of the hunters shared photographs of the hunting on social networks, developed in the

Torre de Bela

farm

,

thus exhibiting their hunting trophies that some have come to qualify as "record" due to the high number of specimens shot down.

Those hunters who participated belonged to

the Monteros de la Cabra club

, from

Badajoz

.

The ICNF (

Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests

) -the body responsible for the hunting sector in Portugal- has reported that it had no prior knowledge of the hunting act, which took place in an area classified as a "tourist hunting zone", and has started an investigation to see if the law has been breached.

The political storm has also been unleashed, with qualifications such as "massacre" or "environmental crime", as denounced by the deputy mayor of the town of Azambuja, the socialist

Silvino Lúcio

, who denounced, according to Efe, that the farm where the carried out was limited and, as a consequence, "the animals had nowhere to flee."

The Minister of Environment and Climate Action,

Joao Pedro Matos Fernández,

described it as a "vile and unacceptable" act and is convinced that they have committed an "environmental crime", for which he will send a complaint to the Public Ministry so that the existence of the crime "against the preservation of fauna to owners, organizers and hunters".

Fenced preserve

In Spain, the name of 'tourist hunting area' is assimilated to the category of 'fenced preserve' and refers in our country to farms of more than 1,000 hectares that, through regulatory hunting nets, prevent the exit and entry of animals.

These are high

standing hunts

and where the specimens are of great genetic purity.

In

Extremadura

, there is only 5% of the reserved reserves of this classification, and where very high amounts are paid to participate in these hunts.

The price of maintaining the farm is also very high.

In the case of the Azambuja hunting, according to the experts consulted by

EL MUNDO

, the images that have been shown on social networks belong mostly to females and also to defective specimens.

Also the farm -because it had the tourist hunting classification 'it would have been fenced to prevent the animals from going outside.

Apparently, the idea of ​​this controversial hunt would have arisen because in those lands where it was developed it is planned to install a photovoltaic plant, specifically, on a plot of 765 hectares.

In fact, the project's environmental impact study is currently in the public consultation phase.

While these procedures are being resolved, the owner of the farm would have organized a last hunt, of great proportions with the intention of ending the lives of all the hunting animals on the farm to be able to transfer it without any specimen in it.

It would, therefore, be a

hunting vacuum

before the change of land use.

Until that happens, the concession for hunting in these lands provides for "the exploitation of deer and wild boar", also through hunting, although due to the high number of animals supposedly killed -more than 500-, the ICNF will investigate what happened .

The Azambuja City Council also affirms that it did not receive any official information about hunting, which does not require municipal authorization, and has asked the ICNF and the Ministry of Agriculture to verify if there were illegalities.

Meanwhile, the animal party PAN - with three deputies in Parliament-, which described it as a "massacre" and assured that it will hold the competent authorities accountable.

"Distorted image"

José María Gallardo

, president of the

Extremadura Hunting Federation

(one of the most important in Spain due to the volume of associates) assured that he has no personal or professional relationship with the hunters who are believed to have participated in this hunt and that they are not members of said federation.

"They give a false and distorted image of what hunting and hunters represent today," he asserts emphatically while lamenting that the images of said hunting have transcended publicly, thus damaging the sector and the vast majority of people who practice The hunt.

"Under a principle of legality, and of private ownership, this image cannot be confused with that of the sector, which is exemplary in the care of hunting in freedom and environmental and sustainable care; we promote -continues- ethical hunting, where the animal is free, and where the hunter does not have an excessive advantage over the piece ", he corroborates.

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