Where Have The Vultures Gone?

One of the familiar sights in the blue skies of Aragon is that of the vultures circling effortlessly on the thermals.  Ungainly on the ground these birds are the largest living freely in Europe and it's a beautiful sight to see them gliding along in their search for food. A vulture can fly up to three hundred kilometers a day.  Sadly this is because it is close to starvation.

This used not to be the case.  However, in 2005 a new, and extremely stupid, law made it impossible to dispose of dead livestock at the 'Muladares' which were the traditional places around the pueblos where dead animals were eaten by vultures and other scavengers.  In 2000 there were at least two hundred muladares in regular use.  Why the Government of Aragon suddenly stopped this essential source of food for the Griffon vultures is difficult to understand, but that is often the case with governmental decisions made by people who live in the cities and know little about the ecological workings of the countryside.

To make matters worse for the vultures the Minister of Agriculture for Aragon decided that 'no dead animals at all may be left in the fields.'  This is contrary to the findings of the European Commission which state clearly that scavenging birds are a legal method for the destruction of dead livestock.

Since then the Aragonese Government has introduced some ten artificial feeding sites.  The new muladares are supplied with the toxic garbage from the industrial slaughter-houses servicing the meat counters of Spain's supermarkets.

Not the best solution since the government in Madrid will not rescind the approval of the veterinary drug 'Diclofenac' which is used to treat inflammation and pain in livestock.  'Diclofenac' has already killed off 99% of India's vultures.  It deposits uric acid crystals in the kidneys and it is kidney failure that kills the birds.
The missing vultures in India have left a hole in the ecology that is being filled by the feral dog population and thus spreading rabies.

In the last year I have seen almost no vultures circling in the blue sky above Aragon.

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