King of Spain Under Fire for Hunting Elephant in Botswana

King of Spain Under Fire for Hunting Elephant
April 16, 2012

Spain's King Juan Carlos is facing criticism from the World Wildlife Fund and the Spanish people for a legal hunting trip in Botswana in which he harvested an elephant and other exotic animals. The hunting trip was brought to the public eye because of the updates on the 74-year-old monarch's medical condition after he tripped, fell and broke his right hip that led to a hip-replacement operation.

Normally, Spanish newspapers would dance lightly around any controversial issue surrounding the king, but because of his fall in a Botswana park, newspapers found and posted a photo of him posing in front of a dead elephant on their pages. The photograph was first posted on Rann Safaris along with photos of the king standing in front of two dead water buffaloes.

The photos have since been removed.

His medical condition was overshadowed by criticism from the Spanish people because of what was reported as an expensive hunting trip at a time when Spain is reeling from economic recession and a potential default on its debts.

The Guardian quoted the rates of the safari as being upwards of $8,700 a week, with a further $15,000 for elephants and about $2,000 per day to hunt with Jeff Rann.

A petition on the online forum Actuable had more than 48,000 signatures for him to step down as the honorary president of the Spanish branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) at the time of publication. In a twitter message, the WWF said it 努ill make comments to the royal palace and reiterate its commitment to the conservation of elephants.

Though Spaniards are commonly considered to be respectful of their king and his unique role in Spanish government and the nationç—´ transition to democracy in the late 70s and early 80s, King Juan Carlos has had his fair share of gun and hunting controversies.

Just days before the king's hospitalization, his grandson Frolian Marichalar, 13, shot himself in the foot while hunting in Spain. Marichalar was also hospitalized.

The Guardian reported that doctors had to remove the contents of a 36-calibre [.410] shotgun cartridge from his foot. Six years ago, officials dismissed allegations that King Juan Carlos had shot a drunken bear in Russia.

Perhaps most notably, the king's brother died from a gunshot wound to his head in 1956, said to be from an accidental discharge that occurred while Juan Carlos was cleaning a revolver.

Maybe his PR people can ask the Trump PR guys for some tips.

Thanks observe for sharing this information.

I was contacted this morning by a reporter in regard to this matter, did not get back to him but here are the questions he wanted answers to...
1. Do you know what rifle he is using in the picture?
2. Why is the elephant with his face against the tree? Did they put it in this position just to take the picture?
3. How a rifle to shoot an elephant must be? What is the size of the bullet? How many bullets to kill an elephant?
4. Is it legal to hunt elephants in Botswana today? Why?
5. Is it legal to hunt for buffalos there?

Picture that I could find of King Juan Carlos of Spain with his Elephant and Buffaloes...

Nice trophies.
The reporter has no clue how hard it would be to pose that Elephant like that.

Congrats to the King on a successful hunt for sure.
Sad he broke his hip.

observe, you stated that the king had shot a drunken bear in russia. is this illegal? must one wait for the bear to sober up before shooting it? how did they know the bear was drunk? did the guides wait outside of the local bear tavern specifically looking for a stumbling drunk bear because they are easier to shoot? what was the bears blood alcohol level when he was shot? inquiring minds want to know.

good point and questions TAP

anyone in the know with answers?

Originally Posted by observe

good point and questions TAP

anyone in the know with answers?

The answer is: Some moron of a threehugger took it out of thin air and spread the word. It says a lot about some of the antis. Plain stupid!

Nice Trophies there king Congrats. Send your tree hugging reporters to school to learn the difference between water buffalo and Cape Buffalo.

Hello friends,

The problem is not whether it is legal to hunt for the elephant or the bufalo (of course is not a water buffalo and if a Cape Buffalo, often mistake of journalist).
The problem is that with the crisis economica existing in Europe and the austerity measures taken by the Government of Spain not understood that the King spent much money on hunting and asked citizens to save the possible maximum.
Royalty in Spain receives an allocation of money from the national budget paid for all Spanish.

This is the problem.
Many are hunters in Spain that we dream of hunting in Africa and the King must set an example in times of economic crisis.

Unfortunately, our King is getting a lot of flak from parts of the press, political parties, (as you may well have guessed those on the left side), and the usual bunny huggers.

As a matter of fact, he was invited for the hunt by an arab businessman who resides in Spain. Nobody complained when King Juan Carlos, with the assistance of this same businessman obtained an important rail contract for spanish companies in Saudi Arabia.

I would like to answer to those few questions although I do not hunt in Botswana but in C.A.R. Both PH and Hunter are carrying a double express. It could be .470 or .500
nitro express (the two most common calibers).
This elephant dropped dead in this position from a brain shot. Otherwise they would have needed a bulldozer to move it.
Any rifle can do the job as long as you use solid. Karamojo Bell shot most of his elephants with a 6,5mm in the brain. But today
in most African countries, laws require to use a.375 as the minimum caliber for dangerous animals. One well placed bullet is enough to kill the biggest elephant.
It is perfectly legal to hunt elephant in Botswana. And they are far too many in that country, destroing the environment. I have seen it.
It was also legal to hunt cape buffalo in Botswana, at least at the time the hunt took place. Rudy Lubin Safaris
Voila and too bad The King broke his hip bringing too much attention from the "anti".

King apologizes and promises never to do it again.

As Honorary President of WWF Spain he is being pressured to step down.

Conservationists my a** - Hypocrits.





WWF-SPAIN REQUESTS A MEETING WITH SPAINæ‹… ROYAL AUTHORITIES TO SHARE CONCERNS ABOUT ELEPHANT HUNT



For Release: Apr 16, 2012
Ian Morrison
Ian.Morrison@wwfus.org
202-495-4141
Following widespread criticism of the recent participation of His Majesty King Juan Carlos in an elephant hunt in Botswana, the secretary general of WWF-Spain, Juan Carlos del Olmo, has requested a meeting with the royal authorities to share widespread public concerns and public calls for His Majesty to step down as Honorary President of WWF-Spain.

His Majesty has held the honorary presidency, a symbolic position, since his involvement in the founding of the organization (then known as ADENA in Spain) in 1968. He has no direct involvement in the day-to-day operations of WWF in Spain or elsewhere.

WWF also reaffirms its commitment to the conservation of wild elephants, a commitment we have held since WWFç—´ founding 50 years ago.

WWF is combating the biggest threats that elephants face in the wild, including poaching and habitat loss. We work with the governments, local communities and non-governmental partners in the countries where elephants roam to secure a future for this powerful symbol of nature.

Decades of hard work by WWF and other conservation groups has resulted in large and expanding populations of elephants in southern Africa, including Botswana, where some 300,000 elephants now roam across the sub-region.

Please find below a translated copy of the letter WWF-Spain sent to the Royal House:

Sr. D. Rafael Spottorno D?z-Caro

Jefe de la Casa de Su Majestad El Rey

Palacio de la Zarzuela

28048 El Pardo

Madrid

I am writing to convey WWFç—´ profound discomfort and concern at recent developments in Spain and the world, which has caused outrage from our partners and the general public against hunting elephants, even when it takes place in a legal and regulated environment.

For this reason, I would urgently seek a meeting to pass on the messages and attestations of concern, analyze the situation and provide a response to the thousands of people requesting a response from WWF in and out of our country.

Symptomatic of this rejection are the many members who are applying to leave WWF-Spain and the tens of thousands of people who have already used a variety of digital platforms to protest and demand that His Majesty the King not continue holding the honorary presidency of WWF-Spain.

This unfortunate event is internationally well known and we are deeply sensitive to the concerns expressed and the serious damage this outcry is causing to the credibility of WWF and the hard work that has developed over fifty years for the protection of elephants and other species.

I thank you in advance for your attention and look forward to meeting as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully.
Sincerely,

Juan Carlos del Olmo
Secretary General
WWF-Spain

As far as I am concerned, any people that allow themselves to have a King have no right to complain when said King spends money on whatever he pleases. Perhaps it is my American upbringing.

I am glad to see that a man of his age, in an obviously somewhat debilitated state of health (normal hips don't break just from a trip and fall) is out there living his life. I think he is setting an excellent example for the people of Spain, and no doubt helping ensure the ongoing viability of the elephant population.

Jerome, you may want to get back to that reporter and help him understand why elephant hunting and buffalo hunting are legal: it benefits the wildlife. I've had that conversation a few times, and it is surprising that some people have never taken the time to look at the economics, and I think I've changed a few minds. I've never made someone's opinion of hunting worse: the closed minded don't listen, and the open minded can see the logic of the benefit to the species and habitat, if not the individual animal.

Originally Posted by tap

observe, you stated that the king had shot a drunken bear in russia. is this illegal? must one wait for the bear to sober up before shooting it? how did they know the bear was drunk? did the guides wait outside of the local bear tavern specifically looking for a stumbling drunk bear because they are easier to shoot? what was the bears blood alcohol level when he was shot? inquiring minds want to know.

Good one Tony! LMAO!!

It's really sad that people have to go to these lengths to explain themselves. It's really amazing how ignorant people are. I guess we have to get the media in our back pockets like our king does.

First Lady Obama is believed to have taken 42 days of holiday in the past year, including a $375,000 break in Spain and a four-day ski trip to Vail, Colorado, where she spent $2,000 a night on a suite at the Sebastian hotel.
And the first family's nine-day stay in Martha's Vineyard is also proving costly, with rental of the Blue Heron Farm property alone costing an estimated $50,000 a week.


Let the King have some fun, everyone else seems to be, and no one is doing anything about it.

Originally Posted by 35bore

First Lady Obama is believed to have taken 42 days of holiday in the past year, including a $375,000 break in Spain and a four-day ski trip to Vail, Colorado, where she spent $2,000 a night on a suite at the Sebastian hotel.
And the first family's nine-day stay in Martha's Vineyard is also proving costly, with rental of the Blue Heron Farm property alone costing an estimated $50,000 a week.


Let the King have some fun, everyone else seems to be, and no one is doing anything about it.

talking about your lots first ladies, i think it was early 1997,and i happened to be in arusha(tanzania) staying at the mount meru hotel, and looking out of my bedroom window was a bit surprised to see a stretch cadillac accompanied by 2 black chevy suburbans pull up and empty out a load of large, fit looking people with very short haircuts and earphones. i went down to the reception but they had vanished. about an hour later approx 15 us airforce crew turned up, and i started talking to the officer in charge. i asked him what the story was, and the cars and people i had seen were your president at the time billiary clintons vehicles and secret service bodyguards. he told me she was on an african tour and had her daughter and a load of friends along for the jaunt. they had been in south africa ,and now in tanzania had pulled into arusha because they wanted to go to ngoro goro crater for some game viewing. i asked him if she was in airforce 1 , but she had kindly lent that to bill so he could go to a summit meeting! so here is the list of toys she had on this african tour as an unelected person!! airforce 2 (boeing 707 at the time), a large jet engined cargo plane that carried the cadillac and 2 suburbans, and the gulfstream for the secret service (not sure if G4 or G5) as a chase jet , it landed first so the security could be set up. plus all the airforce crew previously mentioned. they chartered 2 twin engine planes to take them to the crater. we were at arusha airport and managed to get out on our charter just before billiary turned up, or we were told we would be in for a long delay. i made the driver carry the gun cases to the plane as the secret service boys gave it some funny looks, and i didnt fancy being used for target practice!! just thought i would let you know where some of your tax dollars went that year

Spain is suffering a huge crisis, almost 25% unemployed, but in my oppinion the problem was not that the King was on holiday but he was hunting, I am almost sure that if he would have been playing football no problem. An important thing, he was invited and BTW it seems he hunted a 75 lb elephant bull

Originally Posted by nsok

..... An important thing, he was invited and BTW it seems he hunted a 75 lb elephant bull

Congrats to the King, he must have gotten TWO!