Dutch crown prince, stop killing birds

This is a video about a couple of Eurasian wigeon ducks.

Translated from Dutch news agency ANP:

Thieme wants prince to apologize for hunting

10.09.12, 13:26

The Party for the Animals wants clarification by Prince Willem-Alexander [number one in line for succession to the Dutch royal throne] about his alleged hunting party last weekend. His hunting dog is said to have been injured then.

If it is true that the heir to the throne was hunting ducks, then he should express his regrets about that, [Ms Marianne] Thieme [leader of the Party for the Animals] thinks. Just like the Spanish King Juan Carlos apologized, after it had been leaked that he had been hunting elephants, Ms Thieme asks this Monday in questions to the Prime Minister. Thieme says that a hobby like hunting is incompatible with his position as prince, supposedly an example for the people. She also wants to know whether ‘publicly funded security staff were present at this hunting party’. Because if that would be the case, then that strange pastime was also ‘facilitated by public funds,’ she says.

In some circles, there has been irritation for years about the royal family’s love of hunting. In the past, Queen Beatrix was sacked as patroness of the Dutch Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The Prince of Orange [Willem-Alexander] himself has said that he would continue to hunt.