“One of the big changes in this initiative is related to the limitation of the use of pets in hunting activities”, said Inês de Sousa Real from the People-Animals- Nature (PAN) party.
For Inês de Sousa Real, one cannot “continue to treat pets in the way they have been treated so far, placing them in packs, in completely obsolete and degraded kennels, transporting them under any conditions, and leaving them to be abandoned when the hunting activity ends or even, often, without any conditions of food or water in what are their lodgings”.
The PAN leader said that the legislative initiative, delivered on Monday, "creates a National Council for the Protection of Biodiversity and Nature, instead of the National Hunting Council, and that it would also prohibit hunting activities,” such as the one that took place in Torre Bela, in Azambuja (Lisbon), where there was a controversial slaughter of more than 500 animals, which “may be carried out without any prior authorisation”.
Hunters dumped a dog into our yard and shot our neighbour’s beloved cat, after climbing over the fence into their yard and shouting unprovoked insults at them. Gun in hand, personalities change.
Humans and livestock now account for 99% of biomass on the planet, wildlife a mere 1%. With what logic can hunting wildlife or breeding dogs be rationalised?
By Joanna Perry from Alentejo on 14 Jul 2021, 13:33
This is only an initiative and not law. If it ever ends up as law, I wonder what will happen to all the hunting dogs? Will the owners slaughter them or just dump them in the middle of nowhere, left to fend for themselves either killing cattle to survive or end up in rescue centres?
By DAvid Clark from Algarve on 15 Jul 2021, 10:00