Two arrested in Galicia for killing brown bear

They have been charged with contravening nature conservation laws on two accounts: first of all for using a steel lassoo, an outlawed method of hunting, and secondly for killing a protected animal (brown bears are in danger of extinction).

The investigation began back in August last year, when it was revealed that a brown bear had been caught in an illegal steel lassoo in a rural area known as Las Frezalinas, in the town of Porley.

Specialist agents with Seprona, the Guardia Civil's Nature Protecion Service, collected samples from the area in order to hunt down the those responsible for the kill.

200 metres away from where the bear was found, agents found a sack containing the remains of a wild boar, whose hairs were also found on the steel lassoo later used to trap and kill the bear.

Samples from the lassoo where sent to police crime labs, where specialists were able to establish that the lassoo used to capture and kill the wild boar, was later re-used, this time to capture a bear.

A label on the sack containing the remains of the wild boar led the police to a distribution company in Gijón, and then to one of the men now charged with this crime. The second defendant is the owner of land right next to where the sack and the lassoo were found.

The latter was the one who initially alerted the authorities to the presence of the dead bear, but concealed relevant data from the police right from the start of the investigation, like, for example, the time the bear was found, which could have led to the animal's safe release. It is believed that the stress suffered by the bear during the hours it was trapped, coupled with an illness it was suffering, contributed to its untimely death.

The last time someone was arrested for killing a bear in Spain was in 1991, in the town of Villaux (Pola de Somedo), where Seprona agents detained a man for being in possession of two brown bear skins.