In English
- Authorities identify Spanish hunter who tortured and killed a fox
The image of a little fox trying to get away, without achieving it, from a hunter who mistreated him mercilessly ran like wildfire on social networks in December 2018. The abuser, a 35-year-old man, recognized the facts, which occurred in Huesca, and now he must pay a penalty of 4,000 euros imposed by the Government of Aragon for torturing and finally killing the animal, sources from the Department of Agriculture of the autonomous Executive have confirmed.
The man received notification of the fine on September 24 and has not filed an appeal. It has not yet settled, and the sanction has already passed to the path of urgency. Agriculture's resolution determines that the man mistreated the fox, hit him, threw him into the air after grabbing him by the tail, stomped on him and kicked him to death. In the investigation of the facts it was found that the animal, a small female, was especially helpless before the hunter's jealousy, because he presented a limp that prevented him from fleeing.
The stipulated initial penalty amounted to 5,000 euros, but when the hunter expressly acknowledged his responsibility, the Regional Administration applied a 20% discount. The resolution has been announced by the National Association for the Protection and Welfare of Animals (ANPBA), which sent a query to the Aragonese Administration to take an interest in the case.
The hunter who was recorded while chasing and torturing the animal was identified days after the events by the Civil Guard in Huesca. The 35-year-old man was facing a crime against wildlife. However, he was not convicted. In March of last year the head of the Court of Instruction No. 3 of Huesca dismissed an appeal brought by the National Association of Animals with Rights and Freedoms (Anadel) against the file of the Seprona complaint.
In her order, the magistrate argued that although the facts could be described as "animal abuse behaviors committed with reprimand and resulting in death," they lacked criminal relevance as the abuse of non-domestic animals was not criminalized. However, the judge admitted the existence of a critical jurisprudential current with the exclusion of non-domestic animals from crimes of animal abuse.
The event was announced when a video was broadcast on social networks that showed how the hunter, accompanied by who seemed to be holding a cell phone camera, found a fox trying to flee from them to hide among some bushes. From the undergrowth he was taken by the hunter, who, grabbing him by a leg, then threw him several meters away. Then, hunter and camera ran to the place where the animal has fallen, which, already very battered, tried to run away.
Exhausted, the fox lay down on the ground, at which time the man took the opportunity to strike him in the head a brutal blow with his shotgun. The animal kept trying to run away, and ran a few more meters, but the hunter grabbed him again and threw him away. Finally, he kicked it and made sure that one of the hind legs is missing. The hunter then asked for a knife. "To slaughter it?" The camera asked. "For the tail," he replied. In the rest of the video he dedicated himself to stepping on the head several times to the animal, already bloodless, that agonized on the ground.
As reported by the newspaper Heraldo de Aragón, the video reached a group of WhatsApp to which agents of the National Police and the Civil Guard belonged. Thereafter, Seprona guards began investigating the truth of the video and its authorship.
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