Living in their own excrement or forced to drink fetid water in frozen kennels: this is the grim life for Spain’s hunting dogs, according to an investigation by animal rights groups published on Thursday.

Video footage taken in 29 kennels across the country showed the unkempt dogs chained up and left by their owners.

As Spain’s Animal Welfare Law was poised to come into law, AnimaNaturalis and CAS International published their findings on Thursday, urging the government to include hunting dogs in the legislation.

The ruling Socialist government wants to introduce an amendment which will exclude these dogs from the legislation on the grounds that the existing law gives them sufficient protection.

Investigators claimed at the end of the hunting season in February, between 50,000 and 80,000 of these dogs were abandoned or were even hanged when they were no longer of any use.

Aida Gascón, director of AnimaNaturalis, said: “What we see (from our investigation) are not isolated cases or (cases that) contravene legislation. It is the daily and legal reality in which hunting dogs live their miserable lives.

“That hunting groups and some politicians continue to insist that these animals are sufficiently protected by current legislation is not only a fallacy, but negligence. All dogs suffer equally, regardless of the use made of them.”

As part of the campaign by the animal rights activists, a red bus toured Madrid this week with a picture of a hanged dog next to a picture of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Spain’s government argues the legislation relates to pets not working animals like hunting dogs, police animals, farm livestock or fighting bulls.

It means pets are considered sentient beings which means they can no longer be seized, mortgaged, abandoned, mistreated or removed from one of their owners in the case of a separation or divorce.

The government’s proposed change to the law has proved politically divisive, with some allies of the minority left-wing coalition vowing to oppose the Socialists’ proposed change to the law.

Íñigo Errejón, of the Más País, a left-wing party, said his party would not back the amendment if the government excluded hunting dogs.

“The PSOE has made a mistake and has to rectify it because hunting dogs must have the same rights as the rest,” he told Servimedia news agency.

Emiliano García-Page, regional Socialist president in Castilla la Mancha in central Spain, where hunting is a popular pastime, supported the government’s stance.

He claimed only Spain’s 17 regional authorities had the legal right to regulate animal welfare.

García-Page dismissed as “cheap demagoguery” the idea that hunting was only for “rich millionaires”.

The Spanish Royal Hunting Federation (RFEC) was approached for a comment by Euronews but did not reply.

In a recent statement, the RFEC said the government’s proposed amendment was “very positive”.

The organisation also disputed claims by animal rights groups about the number of hunting dogs which are abandoned.

Regards Mark

https://uk.style.yahoo.com/spains-hunting-dogs-mistreated-kennels-080544775.html

Read more:

WAV Comment – bet he wears combat trousers ! – his type (hunter saddos) always do; that is what makes them real men !

‘Hero’ hunter ???

Texas Hunter Catches Legendary ‘Man-Eating Dinosaur’ Crocodile on Holiday (msn.com)

“It was an experience I’ll never forget,” Wales wrote in a Facebook post he published on September 8. “A proper, man-eating dinosaur of a croc.” He included several photos of the huge animal, one of which shows it hung up under a canopy, dwarfing a couple of people standing nearby.

His Facebook post has attracted some controversy from users opposed to hunting, with one calling the killing “disgusting.”

Regards Mark

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/?s=trophy+hunter

King Misuzulu allegedly needed help from professional hunter to kill lion, angers animal rights group

“How is there anything respectful or admirable about this form of cowardice?”

Ban Animal Trading says traditions needs to be reassessed when they become harmful to the environment or others.

King Misuzulu KaZwelithini has “come under fire” from an animal rights group after killing a lion ahead of his coronation.

After performing the ceremony of entering the kraal at KwaKhangelamankengane Royal Palace on Saturday, Misuzulu was publicly announced as king by Zulu royal family elders.

Explainer: The meaning of the entering the kraal ritual in Zulu culture

But before that, the royal hunt for a lion, led by the Zulu King, took place at the Mkuze Falls Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) on Thursday.

The king and his entourage – which included a professional hunter and game reserve officials – went for the hunt in a vehicle rather than on foot as it was “too dangerous”. !!

South Africa’s Zulu nation crowns new king

Thousands of traditionally dressed Zulu warriors and maidens descended upon KwaKhangelamankengane royal palace in KwaNongoma, to celebrate the traditional coronation of newly crowned Zulu king Misuzulu ka Zwelithini on Saturday (August 20).

Sunday Times reported that King Misuzulu shot the lion in the leg before the hunter finished the job, which has angered non-profit organisation (NPO), Ban Animal Trading.

“How is there anything respectful or admirable about this form of cowardice?” the organisation said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

The organisation said it was of the view that traditional practices should be changed if they had become harmful to people or the environment. However, without comprising the significance of culture and tradition. 

“We do respect cultures, but this is not a traditional act in any way. Did people travel to the animal’s location via a vehicle after someone else had tracked the animal, and then shot him or her in the leg with a rifle so that someone else needed to put said animal out of their misery?

“This is not tradition, nor is it culture. Besides, when traditions become harmful to others, it is then that we need to reassess them,” the NPO further said in reply to one Facebook user.

It is said that the king and amabutho (Zulu regiments) previously rode horses on the royal hunt, but University of KZN cultural expert Dr Gugu Mazibuko noted this has changed in the modern day.

“Animals were everywhere in the past and they used to go hunting using spears. Rifles came very late to KwaZulu-Natal. Now there are game reserves, animal rights activists, and organisations looking after the welfare of animals, so the method of hunting has changed,” Dr Mazibuko told Sunday Times.

Royal feud

In March, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared King Misuzulu as the monarch of the Zulu nation, paving the way for him to be anointed the successor to the late King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu, who died early last year due to complications caused by Covid-19 and diabetes.

King Misuzulu coronation ceremony unfold amid divisions within the Zulu royal family over the succession to the throne.

Some royal family members want the new king’s half brother Prince Smakade Zulu appointed, while others claimed that Prince Buzabazi Zulu – another half brother – was the rightful heir to the throne.

Queen Sibongile Dlamini-Zulu and her two daughters, Ntandoyenkosi and Ntombizosuthu Zulu-Duma, have since been granted a leave to appeal the judgment that dismissed their contestation over the late king’s will.

King Misuzulu needed help from professional hunter to kill lion, angers animal rights group (citizen.co.za)

Regards Mark