Spain's WWF dumps King as patron over African hunting trip

 

The Spanish branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) voted to remove King Juan Carlos as the organization's honorary patron on Saturday after he went on an elephant-hunting safari in Botswana.

Members of the Spanish chapter of the WWF charity voted overwhelmingly to scrap the position of honorary patron, which has been occupied by Juan Carlos since the group was created in Spain in 1968.

The move is a further setback for Spain's royal family, whose popularity has waned amid corruption allegations against the King's son-in-law, and after the monarch's hunting holiday in April, in which he was photographed posing with a rifle next to a dead elephant and also broke his hip.

The trip sat badly with Spaniards struggling to overcome an economic crisis which has left nearly one in four Spaniards unemployed.

The hunting trip was legal and regulated under Botswana law, but the WWF in Spain said King Juan Carlos's participation in it had made many of its members uneasy.

"Although this type of hunting is legal and regulated, many members consider it to be incompatible with the position of honorary patron of an international organization ... that aims to protect the environment," the group said in a statement.