Loose bodies of two wolves murdered by who knows what kind of unscrupulous individuals and hanging from one of the information panels on the Arcenorio Route, in the Asturian town of Ponga, they were an unpleasant surprise for visitors who came to the natural park on Saturday.
The The macabre image has sparked warnings from animal activists in the region and the rest of Spain. The facts are already known to the officers of the Nature Protection Service (Seprona) of the Guardia Civil and the Natural Environment of the Principality, who are investigating what happened.
In the meantime, several communications have been received, including from the livestock farmers of Asturias who, although they say they do not agree with the measure, instead of accusing the perpetrators of this murder, blame the event on those who decided them to have. That the wolf had to continue under the protection of the Lepreh.
The wolf must be protected
Given the appearance this weekend of two wolves hanging from a sign in an Asturian natural park, we express our outrage at the impunity that exists in Asturias against the wolf, a species protected by national and European regulations. The environmental organizations that have already raised the matter with the Environmental Public Prosecutor’s Office They denounce the inaction of governments against poaching and these repeated mafia practices as fifteen similar crimes against wildlife have occurred in the last ten years without a single conviction.
Simultaneously with the Congress of the Asturian Socialist Federation (FSA-PSOE), the Principality of Asturias announced this Saturday the discovery of two dead wolves in the municipality of Ponga, hanging on an information board of the nature park of the same name. It was in Ponga where two years ago, two wolf heads were placed with the same ferocity on the steps of the town hall on the day a regional government meeting was to be held there.
We condemn and condemn these repeated mafia practices against wolves in Asturiaswith which they want to blackmail the entire society. Since 2016, there have been about 15 similar crimes, in which dead and decapitated wolves were dumped in supermarkets, hung from road signs or bridges, or thrown into swimming pools, without anyone being brought to justice.
For this reason, we demand from the environmental organization a thorough investigation by the Principality of Asturias, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and Seprona, so that the matter is clarified. The organization will appear in the judicial and administrative proceedings opened in this regard, and will work tirelessly so that those responsible receive exemplary punishment.
We reject the reaction of the Government of the Principality, which has taken advantage of this new crime to demand the lack of protection of the species and the return to a management model based on killing wolveswhich has proven useless in reducing attacks on livestock, instead of resolutely promoting coexistence and measures to prevent harm.
In addition, The Asturian government has acknowledged “an increase in poaching practices” against wolves and wildlife in general.ignoring that it is their responsibility to dedicate the necessary resources to prosecute and end these crimes. Crimes against the wolf occurred systematically in Asturias before the species was legally protected throughout Spain. According to official data, 14% of wolves tagged with GPS collars between 2017 and 2022 were found dead due to the use of traps or illegal shooting.
“Poaching has been widespread in Asturias for too long and wolves are being killed with complete impunity,” denounced the environmentalists’ general secretary, Juan Carlos del Olmo. “The Principality of Asturias must put an end to these macabre crimes that only aim to blackmail governments and society once and for all, and work seriously to ensure coexistence with the wolf. “a species that deserves maximum protection because of its key role in ecosystems”has concluded.