Spain king ousted as honorary president of World Wildlife Fund branch after elephant hunt

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Spain king ousted as honorary president of World Wildlife Fund branch after elephant hunt
By Associated Press, Updated: Saturday, July 21, 10:56 AM

MADRID — The World Wildlife Fund’s branch in Spain has ousted King Juan Carlos as its honorary president — a title he’d held since 1968 — after deciding his recent elephant hunting safari was incompatible with its goal of conserving endangered species.

The announcement Saturday was the latest in a string of bad news for Spain’s royal family, which has been embarrassed by legal and other scandals.

The fund said in a statement that “although such hunting is legal and regulated” it had “received many expressions of distress from its members and society in general.” It said members voted at a meeting Saturday in Madrid to “to get rid of the honorary President” by a substantial majority of 226 votes to 13.

The Royal Palace declined immediate comment on the announcement.

Many Spaniards were dumbfounded when news broke in April that the king had made a secret journey to hunt elephants in Botswana even though it was widely known he was president of the Spanish branch of the fund.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/spains-king-juan-carlos-ousted-as-honorary-world-wildlife-fund-president-after-elephant-hunt/2012/07/21/gJQAsyAC0W_story.html

[UTUSN]

1. R#1 & K - pic

[wordpix]

7. F-ing bastards and may your karma be equal to your crimes

[RebelOne]

9. Likewise. My thought exactly. n/t

[Coexist]

12. exactly.

[msanthrope]

15. That's a disgusting picture....and I'm glad you posted it. nt

[Beacool]

2. Aaaahhhh, royalty...........

Spain is falling apart and the king chooses to sneak away to kill elephants. Disgusting.

[freshwest]

3. Another example of disconnect from his own people.

[Ian David]

4. All he did was go elephant hunting. He didn't expect the bloody Spanish Inquisition! n/t

[bluedigger]

5. It took them that long?

[nichomachus]

6. Once a Bourbon, always a Bourbon

It must run in the family

[wordpix]

8. If I were Spanish, I'd start a movement to oust him as king for this criminality

[bluedigger]

10. I'm pretty sure that's called a revolution.

[Scairp]

11. What would be the point?

He has no real power anyway.

[NickB79]

13. The argument is that regulated hunting helps protect the species

By providing an economic incentive to local communities to keep them alive when they wipe out their fields rather than shoot or poison them, since big-game hunters will pay many thousands of dollars to get a shot at one.

That said, I'm still very much against elephant hunting for the fact that they are as close to a fellow sentient species as we can find on this planet. I'm not very religious, but if souls exist I'm pretty sure elephants have them.

[MikeCanadian]

14. Can't have much faith in the board.

If you're going to have an honorary president you should probably know their views on the subject.

[Wolf Frankula]

16. OK now Kingy, are you going to eat the elephant?

You killed it, you eat it. And you have to skin it and cook, you and that slaggie of yours. Otherwise you're not a hunter, just a rich killer.

Wolf.

[alp227]

17. ADIOS PENDEJO!

[tawadi]

18. 'The king's hunting trip, which officials described as private...'

Well, not any longer.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/9211663/King-of-Spains-unprecendented-apology-for-elephant-sized-blunder-amid-abdication-calls.html

[DCKit]

19. He needs to get hisself one of them fake birth certifikates, and he could run for pResident!

Watch out Willard! There IS somebody more qualified.