Anti-hunting demonstrations in Europe – Help the victims of hunting who have no voice and Spain does not listen!

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History of anti-hunting demonstrations in Europe

A few years ago, animal welfare activists in Spain noticed and became aware that most of the abandoned, abused or murdered dogs came from hunting activities. The animal shelters were overcrowded with dogs used for hunting and discarded because in most cases the dogs had underperformed.

This gave rise to the NAC (No A la Caza) platform movement, which calls for an end to hunting in Spain to put an end to the associated animal cruelty, not only for the hunted animals, but also for those used for hunting.

In 2014, the first demonstration took place in Madrid, symbolically on the first Sunday in February, when the hunting season ends and the animals that are not worth feeding until the next season are left to die horribly!

The whole of Europe joins in and evolves

14 years later, this fight has spread throughout Europe and in 2024 there are already 48 cities in Spain and 28 outside of Spain protesting on the streets in February against unnecessary hunting and the associated cruelty to animals. The cities of Leipzig and Mainz have already announced their participation in the next hunting season on Facebook.

The fight against animal cruelty in hunting in Spain continues. Animal welfare associations throughout Europe, which adopt hunting dogs such as Galgos, Podencos or other breeds, join this protest every year and organize their demonstration in their city.

The aim of these protests is to draw attention to the suffering of the animals and to put pressure on the Spanish government. Although the Spanish government has enacted an animal welfare law after a long time, which excludes hunting and working dogs (shepherd dogs, guard dogs, working dogs and other categories)¹, Spain is merely showing that the government is not prepared to move forward in terms of animal welfare.

¹ The exact declaration of which animals are excluded from the new animal welfare law is appalling!
BOE Animal Welfare Act, Article 1, Paragraph 3, Sections a) to e)
Link to the law: https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-2023-7936

A large part of the Spanish population is in favor of the end of hunting and the associated animal suffering, but the influence of the Spanish hunting lobby extends to the national government, which continues to hide behind arguments such as “traditions” or “cultural heritage”, as has often been shown in the case of Spanish bullfighting.

The result, if the performance of the galgos is low

Attention – The following pictures could be disturbing!