Safari Hunting in Spain

Manuel Domínguez, the owner of the land known as ‘Los Lunares’,where the canned hunting took place was sentenced to two years in jail, but being his first sentence it has been suspended. Domínguez was found guilty of obtaining the animals from zoos and circuses in order to organise the illegal hunts which also saw wolves being imported from Holland and Germany.
Two of the hunters, Tomás de la Flor and David Jiménez, were sentenced to 18 months in jail, and three employees at the estate were given ten months sentences.
Police who raided a reserve in the south-western region of Extremadura were astonished to discover two tigers and a lion lined up as quarry.
Wealthy hunters are paying up to £25,000 to kill lions, tigers and other rare animals on game reserves in Spain.
Police who raided a reserve in the south-western region of Extremadura were astonished to discover two tigers and a lion lined up as quarry.
One tiger had already been shot dead, but officers arrived in time to save the others.
The animals, believed to have been bought from zoos or circuses, were found in rusty cages at the Lunares reserve, near the small town of Monterrubio de la Serena.
Seven people the reserve owner, three staff and three hunters were arrested and are expected to face trial.
The surviving animals were taken to a sanctuary in Malaga. The hunting of "big game" is just one aspect of the dramatic growth of illegal hunting of rare or endangered animals in Spain.
Police say some reserves are organising "safaris" for hunters who want to kill imported antelope, protected wolves and the endangered Iberian lynx.
The three arrested hunters were Spaniards, but police believe illegal safari hunters, who pay up to £25,000 for the chance to shoot rare and endangered animals without having to go to Africa, may also come from Britain, Italy and the United States.
One tiger is believed to have been shot in its cage or in a small enclosure from which it could not escape.
The practice, which has been reported in Africa but never before in Spain, is known as "canned hunting".
Hunters take the animals' heads and skins home as trophies, claiming that they have shot the game in the wild.
Another said he was "surprised, to say the least" to find tigers and lions in Spain. "We hope it will be an isolated incident," he said. "We are increasing our surveillance and are determined to catch the organisers and the hunters, wherever they are from."