Galicia could set a precedent as the first region to halt wolf hunting.
Paula Fernández
Santiago de Compostela, June 12 (EFE).- Galicia is the first region in which the courts have provisionally suspended wolf hunting, a decision that comes when not a single animal has yet been killed and which could set a precedent for other regions, although the Xunta plans to appeal.
First judicial suspension of wolf huntingThe High Court of Galicia (TSXG) announced on Wednesday the precautionary suspension of the Xunta's resolution reactivating wolf hunting for the 2024-2025 season, following an appeal by the conservation organization WWF.
This decision, which affects the current hunting season ending July 31, came before the wolves had even begun to be killed.
Unlike other wolf-raising communities such as Asturias and Cantabria, where there are specific hunting quotas and specimens have already been shot, the Xunta's resolution did not set quotas but established that hunting societies could request authorization to kill them when there is "verified damage" to livestock.
The General Directorate of Natural Heritage processed several applications in Lugo, A Coruña, and Ourense and authorized two in the latter two provinces that were "sufficiently justified," but they had not yet yielded results, according to the Ministry of the Environment.
Environmental celebration and judicial expectations
These authorizations are suspended due to the court ruling, welcomed by environmentalists, who hope it can serve as a precedent in similar cases filed in courts in other autonomous communities, as WWF itself stated shortly after the decision was announced.
WWF was not the only one to take the wolf hunt in Galicia to court. The Iberian Wolf Protection Fund, which brings together more than 50 organizations from Spain and Portugal, and the Association for the Conservation and Study of the Iberian Wolf (Ascel), also appealed.
These entities also appealed the following resolution of the Xunta, which establishes the closed season orders for the 2025-2026 hunting season and will be applied starting August 1, and they hope that the TSXG's response to these appeals will be the same.
"We trust that the court will rule in the same way regarding the precautionary measures we have also requested," Ernesto Díaz, the Fund's technical coordinator, told EFE, asserting that the ruling "sets a very good precedent."
This is also true for other wolf communities, where the courts have rejected similar precautionary measures, as has happened in Asturias and Cantabria.
"Court rulings are not uncommon outside the regional boundaries. Of course, the higher courts of other regions will review and analyze them, and we trust that this approach will be accepted," he insisted.
The animal rights party PACMA has also encouraged other communities to "follow the example."
Response from the Xunta and livestock concernsFor her part, the Minister of the Environment, Ángeles Vázquez, is "convinced" that they will appeal and this Thursday denounced the differences with other regions: "In Galicia, we cannot behave differently than we do in Cantabria or Asturias."
Vázquez, who lamented that livestock farmers "are left unprotected" and insisted that the Xunta census figures, which are "true," indicate that wolf packs have grown from 84 in 2014 to 93 today.
However, the court considered that these data show that "the limited increase in packs is occurring in most of the shared areas" with Castile and León, Asturias, and Portugal, and that the remaining increases, except for Lugo (three packs), are not "significant."
The Xunta has also reported that there is an average of ten livestock deaths per day due to wolves, and that between 2021 and 2024, reports of attacks increased by 76% and the number of affected cattle by 57%.
For the TSXG, this data is insufficient: it said that no information has been provided "either qualitatively or quantitatively" on the damage to livestock, and that these, although "cannot be reversed, are compensable."
Tensions over figuresThe numbers had been a source of tension between the Xunta (regional government) and the central government, and last week Vázquez again warned that he would be "vigilant" to ensure that the data sent "is not distorted" in the six-year report on the conservation status of the wolf being prepared by the Ministry for Ecological Transition.
With hunting halted, livestock farmers are unhappy; Unión Agrarias-UPA has called for "agility" in resolving the issue and warned of the "consequences" it could have on the balance of rural Galicia.
"Galician society should know that the wolf is not in danger of extinction in Galicia and that no one is advocating for its disappearance in the territory. However, it is necessary to control its populations and damage to ensure reasonable coexistence," he argued. EFE
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