• Marchers in Madrid demand gov’t declare Iberian Wolf protected species
• Organizers call for end to hunting and attacks on Spain’s native wolf population
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Madrid on Sunday calling on Spain’s government to implement increased safeguards to protect Spain’s Iberian Wolf population, which has come under increasing pressure in recent months in a series of attacks believed carried out by hunters and ranchers who see the wolves as a threat to livestock in rural areas.
Ending in a protest rally in Madrid’s Plaza del Sol, Sunday’s march was organized by a group of conservation, animal rights and environmentalist associations, including Lobo Marley, PACMA (Animalist Party Against Mistreatment of Animals), Equo, Ecologistas en Acción, WWF, European Greens and the European Alliance for the Protection of the Wolf (Alianza Europea para la Conservación del Lobo).
The protest march ended in a rally in Madrid’s Plaza del Sol in which organizers called on the government to immediately declare the Iberian Wolf a protected species and to put a halt to poaching and authorized culling by ranchers who receive permits to hunt the wolves on the basis of unsubstantiated claims that they animals are responsible for the deaths of livestock in rural areas.
► ► CLICK ABOVE TO WATCH PACMA VIDEO ON IBERIAN WOLVES ► ►
► Read More in Spanish at Público and 20minutos …
