Luis Fidalgo, president of the Galician Hunting Federation: “We want to include women”

Luis Eusebio Fidalgo (Trobajo del Camino, León, 1958) has work ahead of him. And he knows it. At a time when hunting is frowned upon, this veterinary professor takes over the leadership of the alliance.

“Professor or president?”

— Well, I always felt more like a professor than a president. And the president thing is a very new thing.

“Hunting is about to expire.

— The activity is maintained, although there are fewer and fewer hunters.

—Same activity with fewer practitioners: more to distribute.

“That would be a very simplistic view of the situation. Hunting, as understood here in Galicia, is a very social activity in which everyone has the same rights, hunts in groups and jointly manages the territory. Alone, in the mountains, is nobody.

“It seems impossible to fight the current of bad press that hunting has.

— At this moment, society does not know hunting as it is. Currently, most of society is concentrated in cities and they do not know hunters, they do not know activity. And when something comes out on social networks and in the press, anti-hunters always speak up.

— Environmentalists.

— Hunters are also ecologists and very ecologists. But there are some anti-hunting sectors that present us as the worst of the worst: callous, violent, drunkards, vandals… They present us as the worst sect and, of course, no one would dare to join such a group. But when they get to know us, we are different, because we are a reflection of our own society.

-What does that mean?

— Among the hunters there are doctors, architects, herdsmen, masons, teachers, unemployed, pensioners… And we cannot think that the gentleman who so kindly took care of us about his work in the morning is a terrible person on Saturday when he goes hunting. Is it the same person. Our problem is that we are less and less known. And that’s what we want, to make ourselves known.

—Difficult, because people believe in what agrees with their way of thinking regardless of what is true. And today’s way of thinking is not in their favor.

– Not at all. It is a complicated task and not a task that will be completed in a short time, but all paths have a first step. In any case, people from the village know us and we are not so rejected there. They understand that responsible hunting does not harm anyone and benefits everyone.

— I imagine a hunter posting a photo of a downed deer on his net and seeing only rejection.

— The same would have varied slightly if it had been a wild boar instead of a doe, although that would also have caused the majority to reject it. But when that wild boar enters the city, we are immediately alarmed and wonder why nothing is being done. And the most responsible is hunting.

— With the law on animal welfare, hunters showed that they are still being listened to, but many people also took to the streets against them.

-It’s true. But, although it is not said, guide dogs, shepherds… all working animals are treated the same as hunting dogs. And that they were left unprotected is not true, because all autonomous communities have their own regulations that punish any type of abuse.

Do you have a dog at home?

“We have a Yorkshire who, by the time he walks around the house, is almost done with his exercise. Sometimes I look pityingly at those greyhounds walking Lugo with a cap on top. Those who are lucky enough to live in a house with a garden, thank God, but I think that those who are unlucky enough to live in an apartment do not have a very good situation, no matter how hard their owners try.

— Hunters do not fit into this logic of animal humanization.

— And yet, the hunter has existed since we were homo. And hunting had a lot to do with the evolution of our species, for better and for worse: because of protein content, brain development, and so on. And at this moment we seem to be ashamed of that ancient activity.

“The woman does not join the hunt.

– Currently not. This is one of the pending tasks that we are trying to solve. We must include women, it is a common concern of the whole of Europe. At the recent congress, the participants said that they were always well received. But there is a lack of tradition and culture, which makes it difficult to include it.

– Maybe they don’t like it.

— Those who start, stay. In Galicia, 311 women are federated.

“And the men?”

– Almost twenty thousand.

— Maybe he had some awkward situation in class because of his hunting.

— Not in class, but in college, yes. There are students who reject you in some way, you like hunting, bullfighting or you eat meat. There is an important group of vegans in veterinary medicine. It’s paradoxical, but it’s true.

— Celtic or Dépor?

“I’m not a fan. I always prefer whoever has the best late wins to win.

– Define yourself in a few words.

— I would say that I am a respected person, a friend of my friends and nobody’s enemy.

– And apart from hunting, what do you do in your spare time?

“I fish from time to time. I like to go out in the field and see if the mushrooms are springing up, how the river is coming… I like that.

— If you could reincarnate into an animal, which one would you choose?

– Probably a wolf.

-A song.

I’m very classic. Beethoven’s fifth. That excites me.

“The most important thing in life?”

— Be loyal to your friends, family and yourself.