On May 28–29, several Russian-language Facebook accounts ( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) circulated a photo showing dead animals. According to the accompanying claims, the incident allegedly took place in Portugal, and the animals were killed to make way for the construction of a solar energy park. The posts state that over 500 animals were slaughtered. “That’s what the European values are,” the Facebook accounts write.
The widely shared photo, which shows dead animals, was actually taken in 2020 and is not related to the construction of a solar energy park. Although the animals were indeed killed, the incident was carried out by Spanish hunters. Portugal’s Minister of the Environment at the time described the event as an environmental crime.
The animals shown in the circulated image were indeed killed, but the incident had nothing to do with building a solar park. The event took place in December 2020. Spanish hunters killed over 500 animals – deer and wild boar – on a farm located in the Torrebela tourist hunting zone, about 40 kilometers from Lisbon, Portugal’s capital.
In 2020, Portugal’s Environment Minister João Fernandes called the killing of the animals by 16 Spanish hunters an “environmental crime” and stated that those responsible should be held accountable.
A BBC article noted that while hunting individual animals is permitted, in this particular incident, reports indicate that most of the zone’s deer population was killed.According to the Portuguese weekly Visao, the hunt was organized by the Spanish company Monteros de La Cabra, which specializes in hunting tours on the Iberian Peninsula.
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