Several cases of appalling abuse towards wild species in Spain evidence that the Penal Code is failing in punishing cruelty to wild animals: the devastating hunting of 300 deer and mouflons, most of them pregnant females, in Huelva; the intentional run over of a wolf on a road in the Sierra de Gredos and the savage beating of a boar trapped in an irrigation canal in Lleida, these last two events filmed and broadcasted on social networks, are some of the recent and intolerable acts that have shocked and horrified sensitive people.

The Spanish Penal Code only typifies in its article 337, cruelty towards pets, and ignores the rest of the species. Consequently, the people responsible of intentional violence towards wild species could go duly unpunished: just a fine and the moral condemnation of society.

A reform of the Penal Code is urgent and necessary so that cruelty to all animals should be severely punished.