Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Spanish king denies shooting drunk bear
Yahoonews.com/AP ^ | 10/19/06 | Paul Haven

Posted on 10/19/2006 12:35:06 PM PDT by standingfirm

MADRID, Spain - The king says it didn't happen. And the bear isn't around to talk about it anymore.

ADVERTISEMENT

A spokeswoman for Spanish King Juan Carlos said Thursday that Russian reports the 68-year-old monarch brought down a tamed and inebriated bear during a visit in August were "ridiculous."

The palace confirmed the king, who is known to enjoy hunting, was in Russia at the time of the alleged shooting, but it says he didn't kill any bear, let alone one that was fed vodka-spiked honey.

"He neither hunted with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin nor killed a bear," a spokeswoman for the palace told The Associated Press.

But those denials are apparently not enough to stop regional Russian authorities from launching an inquiry into how the bear met its end.

Vyacheslav Pozgalyov, governor of the Vologda region, about 250 miles northeast of Moscow, set up a working group including a deputy governor and top environmental protection officials to look into the August incident, said his spokeswoman Yevgenia Toloknova.

Russia's top business daily Kommersant on Thursday cited a letter to the governor written by the region's deputy hunting chief, Sergei Starostin, claiming the bear — named Mitrofan — had been fed honey mixed with vodka before being released near the site where the king was to be hunting.

Toloknova refused to say whether any local officials had accompanied the king on his hunting trip. Starostin wrote in the letter that the local authorities turned the king's hunting into a "disgusting fraud."

Mitrofan, whom Starostin described as "a good-natured and joyful bear" was taken from his home at a local holiday resort and brought to the hunting place where they "generously fed him with vodka mixed with honey and pushed him into a field," the newspaper quoted the letter as saying.

"Naturally, a heavy, drunken animal became an easy target. His Highness Juan Carlos took Mitrofan out with one shot," Starostin said in the letter, according to Kommersant.

During the August trip, Juan Carlos met with Putin at the Russian president's vacation residence. The Russian media reports do not allege that Putin was present during the hunt.

Though the Spanish palace spokeswoman, whose name could not be used due to palace rules, described reports of the bear's shooting as "ridiculous," the king has reportedly taken aim at the shaggy beasts before.

Juan Carlos hunted bears and wild boar during a trip to Romania in 2004, according to Spain's El Mundo newspaper. That same year, he took up an invitation to hunt bison and pheasants in Poland.

It was unlikely the Russian reports would have any effect on Juan Carlos's high popularity at home.

The king is a respected father figure for modern Spain, acting largely as a figurehead monarch and international ambassador for all things Spanish. Spaniards like his down-to-earth manner and family-man image — a loving husband, father and grandfather.

But he is perhaps most beloved for his role in putting down a 1981 coup attempt that sought to restore rightwing rule just six years after the death of dictator Gen. Francisco Franco.

The king went on television in the middle of the night to order the rebellious soldiers back to barracks, and the coup quickly fizzled.

___

AP reporter Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-60 last

All they have to do is look for a bear rug in the palace and ...


41 posted on 10/19/2006 12:58:20 PM PDT by CAWats (And I will make no distinction between the terrorists and the Democrats)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: Dixie Yooper

The black coats will be at your house to get you...just stay calm and give them your right hand or forehead...welcome to the dark minions...brother!


42 posted on 10/19/2006 12:59:11 PM PDT by mdmathis6 (Save the Republic! Mess with the polling firms' heads!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: RodgerD
"Spanish-King-Shoots-Drunk-Bear stories: What you get when you murder your real journalists.

ROFLMAO!

43 posted on 10/19/2006 12:59:16 PM PDT by standingfirm
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: rahbert

I'll just go ahead and say it...Bush's fault!


44 posted on 10/19/2006 1:01:23 PM PDT by mdmathis6 (Save the Republic! Mess with the polling firms' heads!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: standingfirm
fed vodka-spiked honey

I'm definitely going to have to whip some of this up at home and test it's effectiveness.

45 posted on 10/19/2006 1:01:32 PM PDT by Centurion2000 ("Be polite and courteous, but have a plan to KILL everybody you meet.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: standingfirm

honest. I didn't know the king was loaded.


46 posted on 10/19/2006 1:01:51 PM PDT by Rakkasan1 ((Illegal immigrants are just undocumented friends you haven't met yet!))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Centurion2000

it might be nice on toast!


47 posted on 10/19/2006 1:05:30 PM PDT by standingfirm
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: standingfirm; mhking

1. Hold me bear and watch this.

2. Hold my vodka and watch this.

3. This bear can hold his vodka, watch this.


48 posted on 10/19/2006 1:05:36 PM PDT by NeoCaveman (make it a Rovetember to remember!! and politics ain't beanbag)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: standingfirm

49 posted on 10/19/2006 1:08:05 PM PDT by standingfirm
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: Shermy
The frickin' King of frickin' Spain is accused of bearacide and what do I hear from you?

Bupkes, that's what. Waddayou? Asleep at your post? I gotta dead bear here, for cryin' out loud.

50 posted on 10/19/2006 1:09:40 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk (What does it matter if we’re all dead, as long as the French respect us.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: standingfirm; martin_fierro; Charles Henrickson
the region's deputy hunting chief, Sergei Starostin,
claiming the bear— named Mitrofan — had been fed
honey mixed with vodka before being released

Despite the similarity in names and ethnicity,
I am not ... related ... in any way ... to this
unfortunate woodland creature, Mitrofan....

51 posted on 10/19/2006 1:10:06 PM PDT by mikrofon (Just Grin and Bear It)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: standingfirm

This is not a headline I would expect to see more than once in my lifetime.


52 posted on 10/19/2006 1:10:23 PM PDT by Tokra (I think I'll retire to Bedlam.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Shermy
The frickin' King of frickin' Spain is accused of bearacide and what do I hear from you?

Bupkes, that's what. Waddayou? Asleep at your post? I gotta dead bear here, for cryin' out loud.

53 posted on 10/19/2006 1:11:09 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk (What does it matter if we’re all dead, as long as the French respect us.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: dangus

No,it was a bear fight.


54 posted on 10/19/2006 1:18:30 PM PDT by Redcitizen (When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk. -Tuco)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: standingfirm

His Highness Juan Carlos took Mitrofan out with one shot...

A shot of what? Mead?
Whiskey, wild turkey, ???


55 posted on 10/19/2006 1:19:29 PM PDT by Redcitizen (When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk. -Tuco)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dixie Yooper

"I worked with a guy a few years ago who wasn't all there. One day during lunch he blurted out of the blue "the king of Spain, Juan Carlos is the Antichrist" The rest of us kind of looked at each other an rolled our eyes."

"And they all moved away from me on the Group W bench."


56 posted on 10/19/2006 1:22:14 PM PDT by dljordan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Redcitizen

Absolut & honey


57 posted on 10/19/2006 1:22:44 PM PDT by standingfirm
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: standingfirm

I'll arm my bears from now on, as is my right,
we aren't as think as you drunk they . . .
(incoherent mumbling)


58 posted on 10/19/2006 1:55:11 PM PDT by tumblindice
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DejaJude; RodgerD
Great responses, both of you.

I love black humor, even when it's so black I know not whether to laugh or cry.

59 posted on 10/19/2006 2:15:43 PM PDT by AnnaZ (I think so, Brain, but if we give peas a chance, won't the lima beans feel left out?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Kenny Bunk
"There's a whole group of people out there who don't want to talk to anybody," ..."They just want to sit at their computers in their pajamas and order lobster.
60 posted on 10/19/2006 3:24:09 PM PDT by Shermy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-60 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson