All of the Animal Protection Societies and animal lovers in Spain are fuming in the grip of this hunt. Spanish Television and Press as well as the bulletins issued by ASANDA (the Andaluz Association for the Defence of Animals in Sevilla) have denounced it forcefully. The following article was publicised by ASANDA, originally published by "El Mundo", one of the major and serious Spanish newspapers on 17/10/04.

THE ROYAL HUNTS CONTINUE

The Court of King Juan Carlos caused a bloody butchery, killing nine bears (ursus arctos) and one wolf, all of them species protected by the International Treaties which Rumania also signed (info published on 12/10 in the daily newspaper Roman ia Libera).

The hunt really started one week earlier, when the employees of the hunting company hung various cadavers of domestic animals in trees. The bears find this food and come there every day. There they can be shot easily. The beat started in the afternoon on Friday, October 8th. Don Juan Carlos arrived at the airport of Otopeni in Bucarest. From there, escorted by 10 Rumanian police cars and various vehicles required by protocol, drove in an Audi to the estate where he changed over to a 4x4. The 15 people who formed the party lodged in Erdofule, one of the 39 cabins which the Dictator Ceausescu owned in that region.
Fifty beaters cornered some 30 animals in a convenient spot and the shooting started. The first one to fall under the bullets of the King was a pregnant she-bear, then nine young bears and, amongst them, also a wolf. Another two bears escaped, badly injured.

""The bear hunting in which Don Juan Carlos took part on the 8th of October at the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, reached - in Rumania - high levels of scandal with televised debates. There was criticism of the King, who shot various specimens, and also of Spain. (Alexandru Petrescu in "El Mundo" 17710/04)""

On Thursday, 14th, the Rumanian TV organised a debate with the participation of an ecologist, a representative of the Rumanian Government, a member of the Academia Catzavencu and the manager of the company Abies Hunting, organizer of the hunt. The programme had an audience similar to that of the last Bush-Kerry debate. And 91% of the television audience, which participated in the debate via Messenger, condemned the hunt.

The region of Covasna is at the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. Extensive forests give employment in the timber industry to the nearly 300.000 inhabitants of the area. Now, also, there are some 30 companies which commercialise "the hunts". It is not the first time that don Juan Carlos has been there to hunt; he did once before, invited by the Dictator Ceausescu himself. Also, the ex-Minister, Álvarez Cascos went there to hunt capercailzies.

According to Otilla Josiff Sherkany, hunt organizer and the owner of 30.000 hectares of forest,"" the King arrived with four Northamericans who paid for the whole trip.""
The hunting of a bear with a trophy costs ? 8.500 and ? 100 for each injured animal.

In Spain, there are some 20 specimens of bears left; in Rumania, between 1989 and 2004, more than 2.600 were shot.
Last Spring, in Poland, the King had already shot a European Bison and in Gredos, he achieved a great record, a mountain goat of 120 kilos, the branches of its antlers surpassing a meter. The price a hunter has to pay.