Huntin'

Woke this morning to the pop-pop of local hunters vainly trying to get some porc for dinner. I didn't realise that I was experiencing the living hell that they have made for expats in the Jalon Valley.

"We are terrified here," moaned a 70 year old grandmother formerly from Leicesteshire who does not wish to be named. "I had a cat killed, lead shot coming through the window and you just have to shut up."
Having moved to this scenic area from the coast 15 years ago, she says that hunting dogs often jump her fence and run amok in her garden.
"The noise from July to February is ridiculous - they begin at dawn and and we can't sleep! They hunt anything and the dogs are destroying the environment. Once I shouted at them from the roof but one just put his finger up. Then they spent hours parked at the end of my drive trying to intimidate me."

After France, Spain has the largest number of licensed hunters in Europe, amounting to 2% of the population.

The government has been slammed by animal right's groups for not doing enough to end hunting, and especially for extending til 2020 the planned 2017 deadline for ending hunting in all of Spains 15 National parks. And of course, King Juan Carlos himself an avid hunter when still mobile was roundly criticised and made to resign as honorary president of WWF (Spain).Les mer