The court number 1 of Don Benito (Badajoz) has sentenced a hunter to two years in prison for killing a lynx by shooting it with a shotgun and to one year and a half year in jail an employee of the former for concealment, with the circumstances in this case of mitigating confession, according to the Efe agency.
The person convicted of the responsibility for the death of the lynx must also pay the Junta de Extremadura the amount of 114,158 euros for the economic damages caused by the loss of the animal.
The events took place in 2019 on an agricultural farm in the town integrated into a small game reserve. During a partridge hunt with a claim, the main defendant shot with the intention of killing the lynx when it approached the cage of the male partridge claim, according to the sentence.
The lynx was killed “from a distance of no more than 15 meters, in an area without vegetation and with a wide field of vision for the defendant. The result was the immediate death of the animal,” the ruling states.
The necropsy of the lynx carcass revealed an accurate shot that caused immediate death, “with an approximate number of 80 cartridge projectiles in the cranial region, thoracic region, forelimbs and fewer in the caudal region and hindlimbs.”
Knowing of the illegality he had committed and to avoid being discovered, according to the sentence, he called the other defendant, whom he instructed to take the body and hide it outside his farm. The employee proceeded to remove the body of the animal and hide it outside the farm and covered the body with plant material to prevent the corpse from being discovered.
Later, he acknowledged the facts before the Civil Guard and took the agents to the approximate place where he had hidden the animal.
The accused of the death of the animal is aware, according to the sentence, “of the presence of the species on his property and that it is classified as endangered and that investments and actions have been carried out by the Junta de Extremadura, with its own funds and those of the European Union, on its land and in the area, with the aim of its recovery”.
To the penalty of two years in prison for a crime against wildlife, the sentence adds that of special disqualification for the right to hunt for four years. The other accused is also sentenced to special disqualification for the exercise of the right to passive suffrage during the time of the sentence.
The ruling also imposes the costs caused in the procedure to both convicted by half.
