Andalusia authorizes hunting during the closed season

2023-06-30 10:28:42

Ecologists in Action has described as “nonsense” that the Junta de Andalucía has authorized hunting deer, fallow deer, mouflon and wild boar during the closed season, during the closed period, during July and August, an “unusual” decision that justifies it due to the drought situation, to avoid damage to the flora.

The Board justifies the decision due to the drought situation, to avoid damage to the flora

This was stated by the organization in a press release, and in this sense it has ensured that hunting in unfavorable circumstances for wildlife, such as drought, “is expressly prohibited.” “The Junta is committed to hunting in Andalusia all year round”has underlined.

industrial hunting

Likewise, Ecologists in Action has explained that hunting is an activity that is subject to legal and ethical conditions, “there is a strict regulation to guarantee that it is carried out with guarantees regarding its sustainability, where the defense capacity of animals to escape is one of the issues to guarantee“He has pointed out at the same time that they have highlighted that the”animals weak from lack of food due to the drought makes it impossible for them to be hunted, they will be pure executions”.

On the other hand, “the Board intends to justify the hunting of ungulates to avoid the effect that they can have on the vegetation, causing damage to it that can become irreversible in the event of affect threatened flora, generating obvious problems of loss of plant mass and increased erosion“, has skewered.

The association has therefore explained, “the problem exists, now and without drought due to the increase in ungulate populations due to hunting interests“, but “the solution cannot happen by favoring those who have generated it, that is, the owners of industrial hunting grounds”.

Harmful practices such as the introduction of farm specimens, supplementary feeding, predator control and hunting meshing, which have generated overpopulations that lead to overexploitation of resources

This model has intensified hunting through harmful practices such as the introduction of farm specimens, supplementary feeding, predator control and hunting mesh, which have generated overpopulations that lead to overexploitation of the resources of the farms dedicated to big game hunting, little by little than the conditions weather conditions become adverse as is the case.

Article 55 of Law 8/2003 on Wild Flora and Fauna

Article 55 of Law 8/2003 on Wild Flora and Fauna establishes the prohibition of hunting in the so-called lucky daysthat is, in those in which, as a consequence of fires, epizootics, floods, droughts or other accidents, game pieces are seen deprived of their normal powers of defense and forced to concentrate in certain places.

Therefore, in the opinion of Ecologistas en Acción, the solution to the lack of natural food “cannot be to increase hunting by rewarding the offender and breaking the law”, but “reverse practices that have brought us to this situation ungulate overpopulation“, has added.

Main measures

Recover natural predators, such as wolves, in the Andalusian mountains, as the main sanitizer of hunting fauna, eliminate fences to allow free movement of fauna, avoid supplementary feeding and release

The main measures must be to recover natural predators, such as the wolf, in the Andalusian mountains, as the main sanitizer of hunting fauna, eliminate meshes to allow free movement of fauna, avoid supplementary feeding and release, only then The vegetation to be protected will have guarantees of survival in balance with the rest of the ecosystem.

While this occurs, the solution to the problem derived from these bad habits corresponds to the managers of the industrial reserves, who must face the need to reduce the density of ungulates on their farms, adjusting it to the livelihood possibilities of the preserveguaranteeing the animal welfare conditions that we have established for livestock, since the management of this fauna is more typical of a livestock than of wild fauna.

In this way, they have qualified, “it would thus be forced to reduce overpopulation in the areas that are determined exclusively through capture areas, allowing the slaughter in authorized slaughterhouse and with the methods applicable to the livestock of the surplus specimens who present a worse physical state“, in charge of the holders of the preserves, but with public inspection by the environmental agents.

Serious damage to the rest of the wildlife, nature sports and rural tourism

“It cannot be that the only measure that the Board provides in the face of the excessive herbivory of hunting fauna is to increase hunting periods, which already cover almost the entire year, with serious damage to the rest of the wild fauna, to the sports of nature and rural tourism”, he criticized.

Finally, Ecologistas en Acción has indicated that it will appeal the resolution that authorizes this extemporaneous hunting with the arguments presented to try to get the Board to “go back and prevent this attack against defenseless animals that are one of the few that They have no responsibility for the damages that they want to avoid“, it is finished.