Lanzarote Information

It was announced this week by the Consejería de Agricultura, Ganadería, Caza y Pesca, that there were several areas available in Lanzarote to train your hunting dogs from the 14th May until the start of the hunting season, which prompted me to write an article on this sport in Lanzarote. For anyone local with hunting dogs that want to train, or if you want to avoid these areas when walking your own dogs they were listed as:

Juan Bello (San Bartolomé) 
Rincón del Mundo (Tías)
Volcán de Dolores (Tinajo)
Peña Redonda (Haría)
Chupadero de Diama (Yaiza)

The breed of dog that is used in Lanzarote to hunt for rabbit and red partridges is called the 'Podenco Canario'. There are lots of podencos for adoption at the local charity rescue centre SARA.

If you click through to their website you can see,the shelter has an abundance of these dogs, for the first time, they are preparing four podencos for adoption in the UK complete with pets passport, this decision was sponsored by Rick & Lesley Beauchamp from Express Recruitment UK and these four dogs have now had their rabies injections, and are in quarantine until November 2009, where they will be available to fly to a new home. If you can home a part of Lanzarote in the UK, please contact Lynne at SARA, you can read more about this here.

We are awaiting the official calendar for the 2009 hunting season, typically it starts at the beginning of August until the end of October each year, the Consejo Insular de Caza (Hunting Council) will meet with the Consejería de medio Ambiente (Environment Council), Cabildo, Gobierno de Canarias, los Cazadores (the hunters), Federación Insular  and finally the Defensores de la Naturaleza to determine which dates are agreeable for the season, but also when a ferret or gun can be used during these dates. Looking back at 2008, the first weeks of the hunting season from the 3rd August to the 11th September, only a ferret could be used, and then from the 14th September to the 30th October it was extended to include guns (escopeta). Within these dates it is only permitted to hunt on a Thursday and Sunday including fiestas.

The hunters have strict rules to follow, there is one set for an individual hunter and another for a group of hunters, they also have to have licenses issued by the Cabildo, you can find this information on their website here.

Individual

An individual hunter is allowed to have up to two ferrets and five dogs with him, he is allowed to catch up to three rabbits (conejos), three partridges (perdiz roja) and ten doves but a maximum total of ten during the hunt.

Group

A group of hunters is a minimum of three people and a maximum of five, they can have four ferrets and up to fifteen dogs with them and they are allowed to hunt up to ten rabbits, ten partridges and fifteen doves but a maximum total of fifteen during the hunt. 

Hunting is a serious sport in Lanzarote, the Canarian nickname for the Lanzaroteños is “conejeros”, the rabbit is more than a local tapas dish, this was a staple part of their diet together with fish and the local crops of potatoes, garlic and onions.

We’ve run into groups of hunters whilst walking in Lanzarote and never encountered a problem even when we have our own dogs with us, the podencos are typically shy and timid, occasionally they come over for a sniff but generally just watch as we pass by, we always make sure the hunters are aware we are there, especially if its a week with the guns!

I have mixed feelings about hunting, I understand that the rabbit can be a pest, indeed it has been blamed for the decline of species of protected flora on the island, and areas have had to be fenced off, but being a typical British animal lover, I find it hard to comprehend why the owners of the podencos, leave them neglected for several months of the year.

What’s your view? Comments please!

You might also like:

Walk from Mirador del Río to Famara

Lanzarote Wildlife