The Climate Action Department has promoted a package of urgent measures for immediate application to control the overpopulation of rabbits in the Ponent region. It was launched in February and have been added to those that had already been developed previously.
The secretary of the Rural Agenda, Oriol Anson, has made a positive assessment so far, in the sense that the "totality of extraordinary measures" has been deployed. However, he has recognized that it is still early to assess the result.
Among the measures, the Hunting Emergency Declaration stands out, with an affectation of 91 private hunting areas (APC) equivalent to 1,888 square kilometers of the total Ponent counties and which allows subsidiary action measures to be carried out in the event that they do not a capture target is reached.
Apart from the night captures and the setting of traps, the ferrets of the hunters have been chipped free of charge, since hunting with these creatures is the most effective method and by law these animals must be chipped. 500 ferrets have been chipped, a measure that the Department has considered very successful due to the great acceptance of damages, among other actions.
In this way, support has also been given to the hunters for their extra effort in the performances. Through the Catalan Hunting Federation, there is a pool of hunters specialized in catching rabbits throughout Catalonia. In this way, they offer collaboration to eliminate rabbit overpopulation to companies that request it and be able to act in the area affected by the damage.
On the other hand, since January 17, the Rural Agents have carried out more than sixty night raids with farmers and hunters with a total of 6,500 rabbits captured and they continue to operate with an average of 6 raids per week with two all-terrain vehicles in the Segrià, Urgell, the Pla d'Urgell, the Garrigues and the Noguera. In addition, it is expected to reach eight weekly hunting performances.
In addition to officials from the Department, the meeting to give part of the measures has also been called to the subdelegate of the government in Lleida, José Crespín, Union of Farmers, JARC, the Federation of Agrarian Cooperatives of Catalonia, the Territorial Representation in Lleida of the Catalan Hunting Federation, ASAJA, the 'Farmers or Rabbits' Platform and Dr. Rafael Villafuerte, guest expert belonging to the Superior Council of Scientific Investigations (CSIC) and the body of rural agents.
