More than 77,000 people have signed an online petition organized by the Franz Weber Foundation in which they demand that the Canary Islands be “free of child hunters”, because in the archipelago minors can go as spectators to the hunts and, from the age of 16, carry firearms.
The environmental defense entity has reported this Sunday in a statement that the situation is “very clear” in Spain and, therefore, in the Canary Islands, since children of any age can accompany or participate as spectators during hunts, being exposed to identical risks as adults.
In the case of the islands, the regional regulations allow that from the age of 16 they can opt for the Special Authorization for Minors (AEM) that allows them to carry and use firearms, which is 14 years in the rest of the country.
With the current panorama, in the whole of the Spanish State and according to the statistics of the Civil Guard, at least 21 minors suffered injuries or died during the raids in the period 2007-2020says the Franz Weber Foundation.
He adds that in recent years the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has warned about exposure to violence, recommending intervention from the public powers to avoid dangerous contexts.
The fact that a four-year-old boy died in a hunt, as happened in Andalusia in 2019is an example of the dire consequences and for this reason the naturalists understand that the only possibility to prevent this is by prohibiting the participation of any minor, carrying or not carrying weapons, pointing to the joint responsibility of the central government, autonomous communities and families in a legislative reform .
The Foundation calls for urgent regulatory changes to prevent “one more minor from being injured as a result of the interest of parents, siblings or grandparents to prop up a supposed generational change” in hunting over the integrity of children.
With the hunting season underway and children accompanying adults, naturalists insist on denouncing that public administrations deliberately ignore the consumption of alcoholic beverages that occurs in these contexts, and point out that the only acceptable rate while carrying weapons should be zero. .
In this regard, he alludes to a report by the French Senate that defends prohibiting the consumption of alcohol by hunters, alerting them due to the number of victims and injuries caused by the activity.
The Franz Weber Foundation points out that hunting in these conditions is a danger to Nature, to biodiversity and to anyone who participates in the hunts or is unrelated to them.
Thus, he gives as an example the victims “caused by riflemen who claim to have been confused” when shooting.
“If an individual is unable to recognize a wild boar, roe deer or fox with their supposedly adequate volitional abilities, while drunk or drugged, the risks multiply exponentially,” warns the naturalist entity.
