The Spanish National Police arrests three recreational hunters
In a nocturnal operation, the nature conservation unit of the Guardia Civil (Seprona) recently apprehended a group of suspected poachers in the Sierra de Albarracín.
The three men, aged between 25 and 38, are suspected of having illegally killed a roe deer in the Montes Universales hunting reserve.
The operation began at around 1:00 a.m., when rangers from the reserve and nature conservation officers of the Aragonese government noticed a suspicious vehicle on road A-1512 between Torres de Albarracín and Tramacastilla. The car had previously been travelling in the hunting area. An alerted Seprona patrol stopped the vehicle shortly afterwards and detained the occupants. According to the Guardia Civil, the suspects originate from Albacete, Almería and Granada.
Illegal hunting weapons seized
Inside the vehicle, officers discovered extensive hunting equipment: a Winchester-Bergara rifle calibre .308 with a night-vision device (prohibited in Aragon) and cartridges in the barrel, a further rifle calibre .243 fitted with a silencer, torches, telescopic sights and hunting knives. The suspects had apparently thrown one silencer out of the window shortly before the inspection. All weapons and equipment were seized for violations of firearms and explosives regulations as well as regional hunting restrictions.
Poachers frequently come from hunting circles
According to experts, many poachers originate from the milieu of hunting. Hobby-hunters know wildlife populations, hunting grounds and often possess the appropriate equipment. Some continue to hunt despite legal restrictions — whether for economic reasons (game meat sales, trophies) or due to personal compulsions. Decisive, however, is the distinction between legal hunting and poaching: while legal recreational hunters operate with permits and within defined hunting seasons, poachers deliberately violate protection regulations, hunting seasons, or use prohibited technical means such as night-vision devices, drones or silencers.
Investigations continue
The three individuals arrested must answer for an alleged crime against wildlife before the Third Investigative Court of Teruel. The Guardia Civil announced it would intensify joint controls with the national police (Agentes de Protección de la Naturaleza, APN) during the summer months. The aim is to consistently suppress illegal hunting in the Sierra de Albarracín and to effectively protect the native wildlife.
Further articles
- Are recreational hunters psychopaths?
- Recreational hunters on the psychological pendulum
- Aggression: Understanding recreational hunters better
- Sadism: Understanding recreational hunters better
- Trophies: The pleasure hunt
- Alcohol: Recreational hunters and the drinking problem
- Hunting and hunters: Psychoanalysis
- Recreational hunters and violence in our society
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier Poaching and hunting crime in Switzerland we document cases, legal questions and recurring patterns. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
