Portugal investigates Spanish hunting expedition which killed 540 animals

PORTUGAL has opened an investigation into a hunting expedition in which 16 Spanish hunters shot down 540 animals in a fenced-off area.

The Portuguese Minister for the Environment, Joao Pedro Matos Fernandez, has called the shooting of the animals, mainly deer and boar, a “vile and unacceptable act”, while the Mayor of Azambuja, where the events took place, approximately 40 kilometres from Lisbon, Silvino Lucio, has called it a “massacre” and an “environmental crime”.

Political parties, local authorities and environmental associations throughout Portugal are outraged over the hunting trip, which took place on December 17 and 18, and an official investigation has been launched regarding the owners of the Torre de Bela land, the organisers and the hunters. In the meantime, the hunting license for the area has been suspended.

The situation was discovered after some of the hunters shared photos of the animals they had killed on social media, calling it a “record” due to the number of animals. The hunters are from the Monteros de la Cabra hunting society in Badajoz.

The Portuguese Institute for Conservation of Nature and Forests has said that they had no prior knowledge of the hunt, in an area which is closed-off, leaving the animals nowhere to go.

The number of animals allowed to be shot would normally have to be authorised in advanced.

According to other hunting societies, killing 540 animals is “not hunting, it’s massive slaughter of confined animals”, said Nelson Cadavez from the Club Monteria del Norte in a statement to national press.

According to the Portuguese press, the situation may have been motivated by the company which owns the land, which reportedly wants it to be reclassified so they can build on it, which they are not able to do with wildlife present. The aim is to install a solar energy plant.

The 765-hectare property where the hunt was carried out, is used for hunting trips for which participants pay high amounts of money, a report in national Spanish daily El Mundo explains.

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