Spain, the country of rabbits, according to one theory, has started paying to get rid of them. Albacete distributes 500,000 euros between hunting associations, a city in Toledo invites volunteers to shoot them every day and now RTVE is joining the hunt, the same one that has in its catalog documentaries about the “rabbit country” that was Hispania. It does so with a pocket deal: 7,260 euros to reduce wild rabbits at its issue center in Las Rojas-Mazadahonda, Madrid.
And what is public television paying to get off their backs? Well, it turns out that there are so many that some of the workers, while parking to enter the set, almost ran over someone. This is the same animal that is listed as endangered and supports the Iberian lynx. A plague in the countryside … and in industrial estates.
40% off. The deal came cheap. RTVE tendered the service on July 7, 2026 and just nine days later paid ADDA OPS SA for 6,000 euros without tax (7,260 including VAT). Since the maximum budget was 10,000 euros without VAT, the winning bid represented a 40% cut.
It is a small contract, with file S-03050-2026, for which three offers were submitted: IBERAVEX SL requested 6,450 euros and UCRA Control de Fauna SL, 8,200. Since the price is 100% of the evaluation weight, the result was very clear: 100 points compared to 93.02 and 73.17 according to this data.
27 hectares of rabbits. In ‘Watership Hill’ the rabbits escape from a developer and are thrown out by their contract at MazdaHonda; But such are the things. The facility covers 269,547 square meters on Santa Beatriz de Silva street in Majadahonda. The company will begin with a thorough inspection to identify the most affected areas and determine how to proceed from there. Curiously, the document does not specify whether there will be arms, ferrets, nets or cages.
What it clarifies is where the limit is: selective methods, proportionate and compatible with biodiversity, without anything that could harm protected species. It is Madrid’s Law 2/1991 on wild animals and plants that defines the structure. The final procedure already depends on the permission of each regional administration.
Capturing is only half the job. Then it’s time to collect: the organization must remove, transport and handle the carcasses and biological remains, and after each intervention it must provide a report with the date, area visited, method, number of captures, incidents and recommendations.
If you do not remove or register the dead body, the fine can reach 10% of the amount paid: 600 euros. The deadline is 150 days and everything should be ready before December 31, 2026. However, the payment will not be as fast as expected as it will be effected in a single transfer 60 days after the invoice.
Albacete plays in another league. To put this in perspective, the RTVE figure is well below the limit that Albacete set at 9,000 euros for each victim society out of a total amount of 500,000. And there are more serious matters: Castilla-La Mancha maintains a rabbit hunting emergency in 364 municipalities, with a total of 603,000 caught in 2026.
The problem is not just in the countryside, of course, as it reaches the cities as well. In Madrid, for example, Torrejón de Ardoz tendered in February a three-year, 150,000-euro contract to control rabbits, pigeons, parrots and blue geese, ferrets, cages and compressed air rifles.
Custom Law. And it comes at the right time. On June 18, 2026, the Madrid Assembly approved its first hunting and fishing law, which protects wild boar and rabbit control plans (they will be implemented by municipalities) and increases the minimum distance to population centers from 100 to 150 meters. Nevertheless, the region has already granted more than 1,400 exceptional permits per season. According to the March 2025 balance sheet, they removed more than half a million rabbits, 250,000 pigeons and 9,000 wild boars.
Talking about wild boar. With them the system is much more direct: you pay per head. The Valencian community pays 40 euros per specimen killed and removed between January 1 and September 15, 2026, with 2 million euros for a line that will be extended. In June, about 3,000 were removed: 2,000 killed by hunters and 800 caged.
Aragon is not far behind and pays 30 euros per wild boar for conservation and 25 euros to collection centers; It collected 2,796 in January 2026 alone. Behind all this is not just a field problem, African swine fever, with wild boars as the main carrier of the virus.
City Council, front row. The Valencian Decree puts city councils in charge of regulation and includes deer, fallow deer, mountain goats, roe deer and mouflon. In 2025, its line of 900,000 euros benefits 121 municipalities with additional. Because this is not just a phenomenon in the south: in Sant Cuga (Barcelona), the council has invested 600,000 euros in 18 years to stop wild boar.
Rabbit, figures. Returning to the hero, let’s not forget the paradox: the European hare entered the IUCN Red List in 2019, but it accounts for 64% of agricultural insurance payments for wildlife damage. And, as we said at the beginning, it represents between 80% and 90% of the Iberian lynx’s diet. Pest and endangered species at the same time: how rare rabbits are in Spain.
Cover image By Daniel Sanchez Badore (own assembly) for Wikimedia Commons/Pexel
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