[Animals] The 'animal holocaust' of the Galician mountains

[Deii]

Forest fires claim hundreds of thousands of lives each year among domestic and farm animals, beehives, herds, nests and all kinds of wildlife. According to animal experts, 400,000 living beings have died from the fires in Galicia so far this year


 

Thor's world is a small piece of land with nothing inside but dry grass, food, water, and the cinder block shed that gives him shelter at night or when it's cold. Those same blocks raise the high walls of the plot. So although Thor is still a young and big dog, about 50 kilos, it is impossible for him to jump, or peek over the zipper. His window is that crack, that crack through which everyone who passes can see his precious eyes. That is why when one afternoon last week 10 almost simultaneous outbreaks sowed chaos in the mountains surrounding Verín (Ourense), the residents of Caldeliñas remembered that the huge dog with thick hair is always there. And this shepherd from the Caucasus was saved from burning to death.
 

Between domestic and farm animals, hives, herds, wild horses but with title (and in some cases with stocks) that live in the mountains, nests and all kinds of wildlife, forest fires claim hundreds of thousands of lives a year . There are, however, neither in Spain nor in Galicia (the community that brings together an average of 35% of the country's fires each season) studies that quantify and certify the reality of this bleeding. The Franz Weber Foundation (FFW) takes as its basis the predictive model developed by Christopher Dickman, professor at the University of Sydney (Australia), for the devastating wave of fires in that country in 2020. The animal rights group calculates that so far summer the holocaust of the Galician mountains could have caused the death of more than 310,000 beings, 400,000 if Dickman's lowest estimate is taken literally, which speaks of between 10 and 15 animals living together per hectare.

Driven by the wind, the flames had advanced at full speed towards the village. The people from the nearest houses hoisted the children into the vans and took the vehicles to the road, at the other end of Caldeliñas, in case they had to escape. But immediately the adults returned to defend their houses and in that sigh some flames higher than the walls had already surrounded Thor's corral, turned into a deadly trap, a real oven, less than 50 meters from the last house in the town. There, witnessing the fight by the fire brigades, Mr. Quino Veiga, one of the few usual residents left in the place, and the young Ismael, from the O Castelo bar, coincided there. Also the extensive Suárez family, which is the one that lives closest to Thor and asks that one thing be clear in the press: "We must put that we are of gypsy ethnicity and that we help rescue the dog."

https://elpais.com/espana/galicia/2022-08-17/el-holocausto-animal-de-los-montes-gallegos.html?rel=buscador_noticias