Outrage at bear-faced cheek of killer king

CARMIOLA IONESCU IN BUCHAREST

IN THE rest of Europe it is not considered the sport of kings. Now Spain’s

King Juan Carlos has come under fire from conservationist groups after

shooting bears in Romania just as the WWF was staging an international

forum to showcase their work in integrating bear and human populations.

The WWF trip was organised to show the world’s media how bears and humans

had learned to live in peaceful co-existence. But WWF sources claim the

good work was undone by the hunting trip, which drew local newspaper

headlines with reports of the King’s weekend hunt and his group’s

"success" at shooting nine animals including a pregnant female.

The respected Carpathian animal protection group, the Aves Foundation,

said King Juan Carlos and his entourage killed nine bears while hunting.

The foundation claimed he then left two others wounded, which his

attendants were unable to kill, and lost track of after pelting them with

bullets.

The Aves Foundation claims he also killed a number of wolves and wild boar

during his two-day trip, staying at one of former dictator Nicolae

Ceausescu’s hunting lodges in Covasna, central Romania.

Laszlo Szabo-Szeley, president of the group, said: "Only Ceausescu did

things like this. No moral hunter in this world kills more than one bear

because it is completely unethical.

"The Spanish king left behind two wounded bears that he and his hunting

party couldn’t find after they shot them. The biggest crime they committed

is killing a pregnant female bear. This was definitely not a hunt, it was

a massacre."

He added that he believes the King only came to Romania because in Spain

only 27 bears can be legally hunted every year.

A spokesman for the King described the visit as private and refused to

comment on what he was doing in the country.

But Sarkany Arpad, head of Romanian company Abies Hunting, which organised

the hunting trip, said the King himself had only bagged a single bear

among his kills.

He said: "Fourteen animals were shot by the King and his entourage, but

only five of these were bears. The King shot only one bear, two wolves,

and two wild boars."

He added that the King had paid roughly £40,000 for the entire trip, which

included a standard licence fee to go on the hunt as well as extra fees

for each animal he shot.

The WWF refused to comment directly on the King’s trip, but when asked

about hunting bears a spokesman for the organisation in Romania said: "We

are currently undertaking a study on bears and until that is finished we

cannot comment on the impact of hunting on bear communities."

King Juan Carlos is known to be a keen hunter and has hunted in the past

in many countries, at times with other foreign leaders and even with

former US president George Bush Snr.

But this is not the first time the Spanish King has drawn the wrath of

conservation groups over his passion for blood sports.

Last year he came in for fierce criticism for killing a rare wild European

bison during a hunt in Poland’s Borecka forest, one of Europe’s last

surviving areas of ancient woodland.

Poland’s foreign minister, Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, accompanied him on the

hunt.

The bison is among the world’s rarest animals with only about 1,600

remaining, and the Polish Society for the Protection of Animals condemned

the hunt and the government’s decision to let the animal be shot as a

"total scandal".

The King reportedly paid £4,700 to be allowed to shoot the 100-stone

bison.

The latest incident in Romania will only add to growing fears that the

brown bear will soon become extinct in the region. Romania is one of the

few countries in Europe that permits limited bear hunting.

Hunting-tourism has become big business in Romania’s Carpathian Mountains,

the last place in Europe apart from Russia, where many large carnivores,

bears, wolves and lynxes, can be found.

Organised hunts in the country have grown popular with Europe’s rich and

elite who often pay tens of thousands of pounds for hunting trips

organised by specialised companies.

Recently a number of celebrities and politicians, including French

President Jacques Chirac and actress Brigitte Bardot, wrote a letter to

Romania’s Prime Minister Adrian Nastase to voice their concerns about the

fate of the bear.

Their letter was partly in response to the government’s decision to allow

the shooting of 300 bears each year.

Aves’ Laszlo Szabo-Szeley has also sent a report to Nastase which details

evidence that the bear population is down from the official figure of

6,300 to 2,500.

The Aves Foundation report argued: "Romania’s kill figures for the

trophy-hunter market are way above a sustainable cull. They endanger the

species."

But Nastase, who is also chairman of the Romanian Association of Hunters,

has rejected claims that the bear population has dropped so dramatically.

The European Union responded to the Aves Foundation’s concerns by pointing

out that member states "have to ensure a favourable conservation status of

natural habitats and species of wild fauna and flora of Community

interest".

Gunther Verheugen, the EU commissioner in charge of supervising membership

applications, has said that if Romania entered the trading bloc as it

hoped to, European law would prohibit the bear hunting.