Pamplona (EFE).- A demonstration of several thousand people toured the streets of Pamplona this Sunday under the slogan “Hunting is freedom.” It has been a protest against the state and regional laws that, in his opinion, “have yielded to animal pressure, ignoring the reality of the rural world and the owners of the animals used in hunting.”
Convened by the Navarra Hunting Federation (representing more than 400 hunting societies and sports clubs and totaling some 8,000 federated people), thousands of Navarrese hunters have joined the initiative. Also, representatives of the Spanish Hunting Federation and those of Aragon, La Rioja, Cantabria and others, with some 5,000 participants, according to the Government delegation in Navarra.
The march, which took place in the rain and with unpleasant weather, was led by a dozen hunters with their dogs. They were followed by two other people with a snowy owl and a Harris’s eagle, shortly before the main banner of the demonstration. This one sported the motto “Hunting is freedom”, which was clad by numerous people dressed in reflective orange vests, and who blew whistles, cowbells and sirens.
Hunting, an essential activity
Thus, and with other banners with slogans such as “Hunting is an essential activity” or “No to the animal law. Yes to hunting, yes to the rural world, yes to our customs” have toured the streets of Pamplona between the Golem cinemas and Paseo de Sarasate. There they have read a statement.
In statements to journalists, the vice president of the Navarra Hunting Federation (FNC), Jose Lavilla, justified the demonstration as a request that the governments that dictate the laws “listen to the group of hunters because obviously with all these laws that are are approving, they don’t count on us at all.”
“These are completely anti-progressive laws,” he said to lament the requirements that are required of hunters with their dogs and other animals such as ferrets used for hunting. The law “is out of place. They don’t listen to us, they don’t know what a hunting dog is, they don’t know how hunters take care of our dogs and they put us all in the same bag ”, she pointed out regarding those who mistreat animals.
“The hunter who does not take care of his hunting dog is not a hunter. Against those you have to go and apply the law, the strongest there is. But those of us who care for animals, those of us who respect the environment and the environment of our hunting dogs should listen to us”, he insisted to regret that the new Animal Welfare law “has not been done with the consensus of the people that we understand”.
