Komitee gegen den Vogelmord e.V. Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS)

Komitee gegen den Vogelmord e. V.
Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS)

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Italien – 08. 02. 2021

Large-scale operation against illegal bird hunting in Venice - police convict 22 poachers

961 dead animals, weapons, plucking machines and 6,400 rounds of ammunition seized

Bonn/Venice. Over the past 10 days, staff from the Committee Against Birds Killing (CABS) and a special unit of the Italian police (Carabinieri) have been working together against illegal hunting and trafficking of migratory birds in the Veneto region. The focus of the controls was in the lagoons south of Venice, where hundreds of thousands of water birds from northern and central Europe are currently wintering. According to CABS, 22 people were caught red-handed shooting protected species or hunting with prohibited decoy devices during the operation. In addition, 21 shotguns, 6,400 rounds of ammunition, nine prohibited electronic decoy devices and three professional poultry plucking machines were seized.

961 frozen game birds were seized during a search warrant conducted at a butcher's shop in Padua supplied by the poachers. The birds including gadwall, pochards, teal, pintails, shovelers and white-fronted geese. Criminal proceedings were initiated against the suspects for poaching, possession of unregistered firearms and violation of marketing bans.

Experts from the Committee (CABS) had spent days gathering evidence against poachers from rubber dinghies in the weeks leading up to the operation and then led Carabinieri officers to their shooting huts. The action is the largest operation so far against poaching in the lagoon landscape, which is difficult to access and is of international importance for nature conservation as a resting and wintering area. Committee Chair Heinz Schwarze thanked the authorities involved for the good cooperation and announced further operations in Venice will take place in due course.

Contact for more information: CABS Press Officer Axel Hirschfeld, +49 1794803805 or Email to CABS@komitee.de. Photos of the operation and of the weapons and birds confiscated will be made available free of charge on request.