[Ozric Jonathan]

It's not my idea of what a rescue centre ought to be doing. Underneath the horror of this story is the ongoing saga of the legal status of keeping these wild animals in captivity. It's a crime to keep some species in Spain, including hermanni hermanni.

My guess is that the gracea at this centre were deliberately killed because they couldn't ever be returned to the wild for reasons such as their health and not being of the 'right' genetic make-up.

As Andy says, the authorities are good at trying to lock up some people for keeping pets but approve mass destruction of habitats for financial gain.

The situation in France is a bit the same but less bad. It's possible to keep the native tortoise species in captivity if you follow all the rules carefully and do all the paperwork, but the authorities discourage it. Has this helped the wild ones? No. The habitats are destroyed to build on land in the south of the country because millions of people want to live there and holiday there. Money and jobs are involved.