Spanish king embarked on bear, wild boar hunt in Romania

"He is king. So what? We consider him a butcher."

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Spanish King Hunts Protected Species in Romania

A pack of hunters led by King Juan Carlos I of Spain killed nine bears, a wolf and a boar in a raid through the forests of central Romania last weekend. The bears and the wolf belong to species protected by international conventions Romania is part of, Romania Libera writes.
For its part, Ev. Zilei quotes a local environmental organization: "He is king. So what? We consider him a butcher."

The news of the hunt came to light through sources close to the environmental group AVES Foundation, active in the Covasna region. They told Romania Libera the hunters covered an area of several thousands hectares and were helped by some 50 peasants recruited from villages in the area.

The sources claim the king's men managed to bring down nine bears of little relevance as hunting trophies, according to the newspaper.

Despite Romanian PM Adrian Nastase's reputation as "the chief hunter of Romania", King Carlos was not invited by Romanian authorities, but by a group of Americans, according to an organizer of the event, quoted by Ev. Zilei.

Sarcany Arpad, owner of a Sfantu Gheorghe-based firm, claims he has been organizing such events for the Royal House for ten years. He says the Americans covered all the costs this time.

Arpad's toll differs from that of Romania Libera. 14 animals - five bears, two boars and a wolf among others - were shot down, he says, pointing that the King killed the wolf and a bear personally.

The environmental group Aves in Odorheiul Secuiesc, a town in the region, says it had learned "disgustedly" about the King's raid from its own sources. "Such bloody parties have been organized for dictators only... He is king, so what? We consider him a butcher", Aves says.

"If one goes to Africa, he can shoot a lion or an elephant, but one cannot bring down ten elephants at a time", the group president Laszlo Szabo-Szeley says.

Ev. Zilei writes the King was hosted at one of the hunting chalets that once belonged to Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. A local forestry official said the overall costs of the event rose to some 1.5 billion ROL (some 375,000 euro).

12 oct 2004

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Spanish king embarked on bear, wild boar hunt in Romania

BUCHAREST (AFP) Monday October 11, 2004

AFP/File

Spain's King Juan Carlos took part in a weekend hunt for bear and wild boar in central Romania as part of a private visit to the region, organisers said.

An official of the organisers, Abies Hunting, told AFP on condition of anonymity that the "Spanish king spent last weekend at Covasna and we finalised the details of the hunt. That's all I can say."

"The king arrived Friday evening and he stayed at a hunting lodge of Nicolae Ceausescu, where the former dictator often went before the fall of Communism in 1989," said Bardocs Csaba, mayor of Batani near the Carpathians forest where the Spanish king hunted.

"The hunting party itself took place on Saturday and from what I heard the king is supposed to have killed four or five bears and two wild boar," he added.

The Romanian agriculture ministry says some 342 bears and 555 wolves will be available for hunting in Romania next year but the figures are contested by environmental groups.

They say the brown bear population has dropped by 60 percent over the last three years in Romania.

But Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, who is also chairman of the Romanian Association of Hunters, has strongly rejected the criticism.