SPAIN: Animal rights activists condemn King Juan Carlos over his elephant-hunting trip in Botswana

Record ID: 717356

  • Title: SPAIN: Animal rights activists condemn King Juan Carlos over his elephant-hunting trip in Botswana
  • Date: 18th April 2012
  • Summary: ACTIVIST HOLDING POSTER ACTIVISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) SHARON NUÑEZ, ANIMAL EQUALITY REPRESENTATIVE, SAYING: "It definitely shows us how little animals matter to him and the anger this has created in society is something positive because this means that animals do matter to society and they reject this kind of habit of the king." ACTIVISTS HOLDING POSTERS READING "BAN HUNTING" (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ISABEL PEREZ, PASSERBY, SAYING: "Say no more, they (activists) are right. Why sacrifice an animal, and what has the elephant ever done? They are under extinction. It can't be." (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MARIA LUISA, PASSERBY WEARING FUR COAT, SAYING: "I think it's right. If he has been doing this all his life, well let him continue. We can't gang up on him. I agree with the trip, it's to enjoy hunting."
  • Embargoed: 3rd May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Spain, Spain
  • Country: Spain
  • Topics: Royalty,Environment,Politics,Royalty
  • Reuters ID: LVA1YQIVU8LY0A585RI54VREX37A
  • Story Text: Animal rights activists gathered in front of Madrid's San Jose hospital on Tuesday (April 17) where Spain's King Juan Carlos is recovering form surgery after he fractured his hip during an elephant-hunting trip in Botswana which has sparked controversy throughout the country.
    At Tuesday's demonstration, members of Animal Equality and Equanimal had posters of animals with a slogan reading: "Victims of the Royal hunt".
    The protest comes after tens of thousands of wildlife activists demanded that the King step down as honorary president of the World Wildlife Fund Spain due to the African hunting trip.
    The King's hunting trip to Botswana last week was revealed when he was flown back to Madrid for medical attention after slipping on a step and breaking his hip.
    The WWF Spain has also written to the royal household to request a meeting with officials to convey the outrage of thousands of activists over the trip, although it stopped short of telling the King to step down.
    King Juan Carlos came under intense media fire on Sunday for hunting elephants in Botswana, a sport many consider extravagant and expensive, as his country is being sucked once more back into the euro zone's financial crisis and suffers from the highest unemployment rate in Europe at almost 23%.
    Spanish media pointed to the cost of his trip and criticized the lack of transparency of the Royal Household, three months after it promised to disclose its income following a corruption probe linked to the King's son-in-law, but the trip has also stirred up controversy among animal rights activists.
    The royal holiday last week would have remained secret if the King had not tripped on a step, fractured his hip and had to be flown back urgently to Madrid to undergo hip replacement surgery on Saturday morning.
    Most Spanish newspapers and TV channels on Sunday showed a picture of the King in front of a dead elephant, taken on a similar trip to Botswana in 2006.
    The picture drew many internet and Twitter comments, some linking it to a Russian hunting trip in 2006 when the King was reported to have killed a bear which had been made drunk.
    A separate accident also drew media attention to the royal family on Monday (April 9), when Felipe Juan Froilan, the 13-year-old son of the king's eldest daughter Infanta Elena, accidentally shot himself in the foot with a shotgun during target practice outside a family home north of Madrid.
    King Juan Carlos, who oversaw the country's tense transition to democracy, won respect from many Spaniards in 1981 when he publicly condemned an attempted military coup.
    He has remained very popular but his family has recently come under fire after the King's son-in-law, Inaki Urdangarin, was charged in a fraud and embezzlement case.
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