The
OLIVE PRESS
FREE
Vol. 5 Issue 131
EXCLUSIVE By Jorge Hinojosa
Travel industry bounces back
Page 6
Never forgotten Celebrities who died in Spain
Page 6
Piece of the action Our Spanish language picks on Netflix
Page 10
Off the beaten track Our picks for a Spring adventure with a difference
Page 12
2 147 834
Your expat
voice in Spain
www.theolivepress.es May 20th - June 2nd 2022
Couple planning to leave Spain after hunters shoot their beloved dog Sombrita
Get on board
Driven to distraction
MALLORCA
AN expat couple have slammed police inactivity after their dog was shot dead by hunters. Jennifer and Victor Gebhardt, 67 and 78, are furious that the Guardia Civil are refusing to probe the slaying of their beloved Sombrita. The retired South African couple, who have lived in Almeria for over a decade, are distraught and planning to leave Spain over the incident. The three-year-old Mastein was left whimpering in pain after a hunter fired a trio of shots at them during the evening walk near their village of Guainos Bajos. Chipped and vaccinated, Sombrita (meaning shadow in Spanish) had been running around chasing rabbits and ‘having a really fun time’. “It had been a lovely long walk in the mountains and we were nearly home when I heard the first shot, then the second, then finally the third which hit her,” recalled Jennifer, a former teacher. “I was calling out making sure they knew who we were, but that didn’t stop them. It could have easily been me.” Despite being petrified and wanting to flee, Jennifer tried to identify the hunters in the dark. “I shouted at them to come out, but they vanished obviously knowing they had killed my dog. “It was definitely not an accident, I’m sure, because they shot with a rifle that has a night sight.” As it was too dark she was unable to find the body until the morning, when she went
The UK licence drama deepens See pages 4 & 10
SHADY DEATH
out with her husband, a former safari ranger in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. “We spent the whole next day trying to find her,” she recalls. But what was a sad moment turned to horror when she went to report the incident to her nearest Guardia Civil police station in Adra. “They did absolutely nothing to help… in fact they were really unsympathetic. “This despite telling them I had not slept for days and felt terrible.” She continued that the incident had made them decide to leave the country. “We love Spain, but now want to live elsewhere. We cannot live somewhere where animal rights are not protected.” The Olive Press contacted the local Guardia Civil, in Adra, but despite confirming the case, insisted they could not ‘investigate further as she has not provided any names’. When pressed on how Jennifer was meant to get names of people who ran away, they refused to comment and put the phone down.
HAPPIER TIMES: With Sombrita before and (below) after the shooting
It is certainly not an isolated incident. Jillian Chiperfield, president of nearby Berja’s animal association, told the Olive Press: “We
SUMMER OF ‘22
Bryan Adams has announced a Spanish tour for his new album including a Mallorca date. The soft-rock supremo will be playing at Golf de Andratx on July 17 as part of his So happy it hurts tour with tickets starting from €55. He has also announced dates in Cadiz, Illescas, Valencia, and Vigo. The 62-year-old Canadian is one of the best selling artists of all time, selling in excess of 100 million records. His new album of the same name deals with the confinement of the pandemic but he will also be playing classic ballads including ‘Everything I do’ and ‘Please Forgive Me’. A host of music acts are set to descend on the Baleares this summer at a series of long-overdue music festivals. Muse, Franz Ferdiannd, and Chrsitina Aguilera are all coming to Mallorca as part of the Mallorca live Festival in Calvia on the final weekend of June while early this month in In Ibiza, Duran Duran played a gig supported by influential British DJ Pete Tong.
Tel: 952 147 834
See page 4
TM
have come across a lot of animals shot, especially cats killed for fun. “Last year we found a dog shot on his nose that broke his jaw and lost part of his tongue. “Another woman had her dog shot while walking in the park.” She even believes that some of the shooting is by police themselves. “I was once told by forest rangers that if your dog is not on a lead in a natural park they are entitled to shoot it,” she claimed. Ana Maria Bejar of animal rights party PACMA, added that similar incidents happen frequently in rural areas of Spain. “Hunters think the countryside is their property and they have the freedom to do whatever they want. Some even insist that if walkers don’t want to get shot they should stay in the towns.” Only two months ago in Mallorca, an 89-year-old man was sentenced to six months in prison for shooting his neighbour’s dog dead . The man had walked onto his neighbour’s farm and shot it three times as it was ‘bothering’ him. Opinion Page 6