Eloise HorsfieldBy Eloise Horsfield
TWO men have been charged with shooting dead a protected feline.
The corpse of the Iberian lynx – the most endangered big cat in the world – was found in July in Doñana National Park, Sevilla, on the boundary of a hunting reserve, containing 30 lead bullets.
Two hunters were identified after the deadly pellets were analysed by ballistics experts, and the pair will now face court.
The news comes as two other Iberian lynxes die in captivity in Andalucia.
On October 5 at a breeding centre in El Acebuche, four-month-old female cub Hura died suddenly from a pulmonary infection which specialists are now investigating.
Two weeks later on October 19, a four-year-old male named Datil died of kidney disease at another breeding centre in Olivilla near Jaen.
Datil entered phase three of the chronic disease a year ago, and had since been receiving palliative care in order to make his last few months bearable.
There are thought to be just 250 of these iconic Andalucian felines living in the wild.
The Lynx Life project has been working to raise their population since 2003 through breeding, releasing individuals into the wild then tracking their progress, replenishing rabbit stocks – pretty much the only thing lynxes eat – and legislating against snare-laying.
Hope justice is dished out and they spend a long time in “captivity “, the spanish will shoot anything, time they changed their ways….
What were those two men thinking who killed the lynx? Don’t they have anything better to do with their time? They want violence? Go home and watch the evening news.
Even if the spanish can’t see clearly what something is they will shoot it and find out later. If you go in my local bar (whn i am in spain) on a Sunday morning you will see 20 or so locals returning from hunting having a coffee. I think this is tradition plus it saves them spending money on meat, but there really is not too much left to shoot now. I think they have almost killed everything. I cannot remember the last time I saw a rabbit.
The other thing they do in Spain is with partidges. They keep quite a few in indiviual cages where they have standing room only. Their muscles become week. They then use these out in the field to attract wild partridges. These caged birds cannot fly or walk too far as their muscles are very weak. When the wild birds come along they are shot for a spot of lunch. I musr say these caged birds only just about fit inside the cage.