Officials from the City Council of Ponga (Asturias) found two wolf heads, one male and one female, outside the gates of the town hall this Friday. It was early, around 8 a.m., and Mayor Marta María Alonso was on her way there when she received a call to inform her of the macabre discovery. It was not an ordinary day in Ponga, with just a few hours left to receive the President of the Principality of Asturias, Socialist Adrián Barbón, and his team, who were holding a meeting of the Governing Council in the city. Politicians and ranchers categorically reject this behavior, which biologist and wolf expert Juan Carlos Blanco describes as a form of “blackmail, mafia-style, godfather-style.” It’s not the first time something similar has happened in the Principality: in 2017, several dead specimens surfaced and were displayed in public places (parking lots, traffic signs…) and in August 2018, the head and tail of a wolf were found swimming in the municipal swimming pool by Infiesto.
“It was very uncomfortable, the heads looked like they came out of a freezer because they had some frost and were there for a while before they were removed,” Alonso describes. “It’s a crime and it’s not a way to claim anything,” he blurts out. It refers to the conflict with the wolf (Canis lupus signatus), which aggravated with its inclusion on the List of Wild Species under a Special Protection Regime (LESRPE) in September 2021. Its capture is prohibited throughout Spanish territory and only allowed in exceptional cases. Before the adoption of this measure, there was a control by forest wardens in Asturias. The ministerial order was opposed by farmers and the governments of Castilla y León, Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria, the municipalities where 95% of the wolf population in Spain resides.
“There are legal and administrative ways to challenge this decision and these behaviors do not reflect the feelings of the council or the farmers. I have it very clear,” says the Ponga City Council. The City Council has appealed to the National Court to delist the species and has made another administrative appeal to the Ministry of Ecological Transition. “You may be against total wolf protection because we understand that specimens need to be controlled, but we have never called for the eradication of any species,” he says. The President of Asturias reiterated his “disagreement” with the government following the Ponga event over the current protection of the wolf. “Anything is acceptable and respectable as long as the lines of respect are not crossed,” he said. Because, he added, the appearance of the wolf heads presupposes “a violent attitude and a crime”.
climate of tension
Mercedes Cruzado, Secretary General of COAG Asturias “one of the most important agricultural organizations in the country”, points to the tense climate in the region. “People are very angry, we’re getting hurt and we feel abandoned, but the heads thing… isn’t the way, we’re not asking for the species to go away,” he says. What they propose is “to be able to continue raising cattle and make a living from it”. Although he has no official data on the attacks, he assures that they are suffering widespread damage. Regarding the compensation they receive, he claims that they do not compensate because the value of the animal is paid, but this amount does not cover the entire investment. In his case, for example, the best dams and bulls have been selected over the years. “It undermines and people end up getting desperate and doing these things [por la aparición de las cabezas de lobo]”, he thinks. The only way to address the situation would be a serious and responsible control with reports from scientists and guards, he adds.
With this panorama, species expert Juan Carlos Blanco claims that in these cases the only thing that can be done is to condemn them and take police action. “It is inadmissible and pointless to discuss whether the wolves do much or little damage when two severed heads are in front of them,” he says. Blanco estimates that the wolf population has been growing over the long term, but not in recent years, and he doesn’t care anyway “at times like these because that circumstance is by no means an excuse for such actions.” Ignacio Martínez, President of the Association for the Conservation and Study of the Iberian Wolf (ASCEL), denounced the “lukewarmness and hypocrisy” of the Asturian government. “By not giving clear messages and being fully committed to protecting species, it encourages these situations,” he argues.
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live with wolves
David Buseco is a cattle breeder, Asturian and lives in western Asturias, in the municipality of Valdés, the area where most damage is caused by wolf attacks in the Principality. “Here they are always, we are used to it, not like in Picos de Europa,” he explains. He guards his goats every day. “I wouldn’t think of leaving them out,” he adds. The problems arise, he clarifies, as people get used to keeping cattle without wolves for decades, and when wolves return, they continue to defend them in the same way. And “that can’t be, we have to change the way farm animals are kept.”
Buseco knows what it means to lose cattle. Their horses, between 60 and 70 Asturons, roam the mountains all year round. Without any handling. The wolves kill between 15 and 17 horses for him every year, but he thinks that’s normal. “I don’t spend a single euro on keeping horses, that has its advantages and disadvantages,” he says. He also has mastiffs with the goats and the wolf hasn’t killed any for years, “well, maybe one if you’re lagging behind”. “Anyone who says dogs aren’t worth caring for cattle doesn’t have good dogs. I raise them here, they are among the goats, they are born with them, it’s like they are their family and they like to take care of them,” he assures. The problem, he says, is that there is a lack of information and he understands that wolf controls are being carried out, but they have to be “exceptional”, for example “when a wolf starts killing cattle”.
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