Viewers watching the midday news yesterday were confronted with a video of stag fighting off a pack of hounds.
However, what stunned most viewers was that the struggle was taking place on the edge of an outcrop and resulted in twelve of the dogs falling off, as well as the stag.
It reached national TV after causing a stir of indignation on social media, where it had gone viral.
Far-left, party leader, Pablo Iglesias, described the footage as “barbaric” and the pack owner and other hunters involved as “criminals.”
On the other side some hunting clubs said that it was an “isolated” incident and was fruit of the “instinct of the pack. They assured that although twelve dogs fell over the side, only one died and all were attended to by a vet.
Yet both the Real Federación Española de Caza (RFEC) and the Federaciones Autonómicas de Caza (FFAA) stated that they were “troubled and dismayed” by the incident, which took place in the municipality of Herreruela in Cáceres (Extremadura).
However, the Chairman of the RFEC, Ángel López Maraver, considered that the controversy generated by the video demonstrates that animal-rights lobbies, backed by politicians, will jump at any incident to “criminalise the sector.”
(News: Herreruela, Cáceres, Extremadura)