There will be no going back, at least for the time being and by legislative means, in the regulation that includes the wolf in the List of Wild Species under Special Protection Regime (Lespre) in which the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge decided to introduce it , with the position against communities such as Castilla y León, Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria, in which more than 90% of the canids of the Peninsula roam. Yesterday, the Congress of Deputies overthrew, with 176 votes against, 146 in favor and 26 abstentions (including those of Ciudadanos, PNV and EH Bildu) the initiative in the form of the León Proposal defended by the popular Palencia Milagros Marcos aimed at repealing the order published in the BOE on September 21.
But his arguments against a decision that in practice means that the wolf cannot be hunted north of the Duero River, the natural border that until eight months ago made the difference in terms of the hunting management of the canid, fell on deaf ears. “You do not have to choose between protecting the wolf and protecting livestock,” defended the former Minister of Agriculture and Livestock of the Junta de Castilla y León. She advocated “search for solutions” that allow the conservation of the canine without harming livestock instead of “prohibiting”. “They pull ideology,” she accused the parties of the “left” to censor this change in status that, she said, “does not hold up” neither in data nor in current regulations and “even lacks common sense.”
“The ranchers who cry helplessly every day and live with their hearts in a fist because of a whim of the Government,” Marcos criticized. “How many animals have to die?” he questioned. And he argued that 14,000 cattle have perished in the last year victims of the jaws of the wolf, with 40 attacks per day on average between Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and Castilla y León. Precisely from the parties with roots in these territories came support for the PP initiative, which also attracted the support of Vox, in a debate that again divided the hemicycle into a dialectical confrontation between left and right.
Thus, the formations that support the Government refused to rectify their decision and thus veto the initiative to regain hunting control of the wolf, which in Castilla y León was done through a quota system. “It is clear that the wolf is not expanding,” argued the socialist Omar Anguita to support his vote against him. “They try to create a dichotomy between livestock and wolves,” criticized the PSOE deputy, who highlighted the 20 million euros contemplated in preventive measures and payment of compensation, in addition to another 20 million destined for the communities. “Against”, Juan López de Uralde (Unidas Podemos) made it clear as soon as he got up to the speakers’ gallery, for whom the PP initiative is “misleading” because “it talks about conservation of the wolf, but it goes against it”.
