Slaughter of 450 trapped animals in Spain condemned as ‘orgy of death’

Almost 450 deer and wild boar have been killed in Spain in a day of commercial hunting condemned by ecologists as an “orgy of blood and death”.

The animals were penned in by fences, unable to escape the gunfire from the 70 participating hunters who were each charged €1,000 (£847) for the shoot, which took place on a private estate in Villaviciosa de Cordoba, in the Sierra Morena hills of Andalucia.

Such commercial hunting parties are legal under Spanish law, but ecologists and activists criticised the use of fences as unethical after images of the animals’ carcasses appeared online.

Manuel Gallardo, president of the Royal Spanish Hunting Federation, conceded that the photographs were shocking, but told El Mundo that the display of the animals’ bodies on the floor following the slaughter was necessary for health regulations.

Mr Gallardo said hunting is essential not only for conservation – “due to the overabundance of species” – but also for the social, cultural and economic wellbeing of the region, adding that it generates €6.5bn a year as well as providing jobs.

However, Joaquin Reina, from Ecologists in Action, said the event was an “orgy of blood and death”.

“This is the daily life of most of the fenced estates in Sierra Morena, but also throughout Andalucia, with some 500,000 hectares fenced, [along with] Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha and the Levante region,” he said.

He said the massacre would be impossible on an open estate, adding: “The only defence is escape, and this is absolutely diminished by a wire barrier.”

Eduardo Goncalves, founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, told The Independent that the event was “truly shocking”.

“It’s an absolute bloodbath, slaughter on a totally senseless scale,” he said. “It’s also utterly cowardly. These were animals herded inside a fenced enclosure. They had no chance of escape. The people who did this call themselves sport hunters. There was nothing remotely sporting about this.

“Spain seems to have become an epicentre of almost every kind of unacceptable hunting.”

In 2020, Portuguese officials were left outraged after Spanish hunters massacred more than 500 deer and wild boar in a hunting zone in the centre of the country.

Portugal’s environment minister Joao Fernandes said at the time that the killing by 16 Spanish hunters was “vile” and an “environmental crime” that should be prosecuted. Most of the area’s deer population were said to have died in the incident.