21.04.2025

When the first newspaper reports about the unbelievable extent of migratory bird hunting in Italy appeared in the mid-1970s, a small group of bird conservationists in Berlin decided to take action. On 1 March 1975, they founded the Committee Against Bird Slaughter. Today, half a century later, we are a Europe-wide organisation and a leader in the fight against bird-trapping and illegal hunting. From Spain in the west to Lebanon in the east, we now safeguard the migration routes and resting places of our migratory birds. 

Read more about the origins of our organisation and its successes and challenges here.

17.04.2025

Yesterday, a CABS-team was viciously attacked by hunters on the popular Greek holiday island of Zakynthos. The conservationists had identified several poachers on the Keri Peninsula who were illegally shooting migratory birds. During the check, 15 men, some of them masked, suddenly appeared and attacked them without warning. A Slovenian employee had his nose broken, an Italian employee suffered a severe leg wound, two female British volunteers and a bird conservationist from Switzerland suffered bruises and scratches. Three CABS members have been taken to the hospital but remain in good spirits. Read todays full Press Release by following the link here.

16.04.2025

Contrary to current EU law, Malta has once again authorised spring hunting for quail. However, the majority of hunters seem to have little interest in comparison to high flying birds. Instead of hunting on foot in fields - the typical resting habitat of quails - they take position in high hunting towers and shelters in groves where turtle dove come to roost. It is evident that many Maltese hunters shamelessly exploit the quail hunting season to target endangered turtle doves. To make matters worse, the government in Valletta has declared that the turtle dove may also be shot from 21 April, regardless of its EU-wide protection in spring.

More on our anti-poaching operations in Malta here. 

14.04.2025

During our spring bird protection camp in Cyprus, our team on the ground have caught the third bird trapper of the season. The young man had set up a net in Famagusta district to catch blackcaps – the sought-after species which is eaten as a delicacy. Two other notorious bird trappers were also caught by game wardens with 56 limesticks and electronic decoys as a direct result of our field investigations. Since heavy penalties were introduced in Cyprus in 2017 for the use of limesticks and nets during the spring migration, we have seen a sharp decline in bird trapping. If bird trappers are caught trapping outside of the hunting season, they face hefty fines often well in excess of 8,000€! 

11.04.2025

A team from the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) has recovered an injured white stork in the east of the Lebanese harbour city of Tripoli. A vet confirmed the suspicion that the animal had been illegally shot - unfortunately the bird had to be euthanised due to the severity of its injuries. The stork was wearing a Czech ring with the number YK026 and had been ringed on 28 May 2022 in Bor u Tachov (near Pilsen/Plzeň) in Bohemia. Just a few days earlier, another stork from Germany equipped with a transmitter had also gone missing in the northern Lebanon Mountains.

Find out more about our work to protect storks passing through Lebanon here. 

07.04.2025

A Golden Eagle which was being illegally held in a concrete enclosure in Beirut is back in the wild. After several weeks of treatment, the bird was deemed fit for release by our team vet and set free in the mountains of Shouf Biosphere Reserve Reserve. Staff from the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS), together with our Lebanese partners from Middle Eastern Sustainable Hunting Centre MESHC Anti-Poaching Unit and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon, watched in awe and admiration as the magnificent bird spread its wings and started its new life in freedom. 

Watch a short-video of the rescue and release here ...

26.03.2025

Our ongoing bird protection camp across the Maltese archipelago has been running for three weeks now. Our Bird Guard teams have been busy scouring the countryside investigating finch trapping sites with clap-nets which despite being illegal, unfortunately continues to be a common phenomenon every spring. Finch species are popular cage birds in Malta and are also sold for profit on the black market. Follow our reports to police, so far 24 sets of clap-nets have been removed, more than 50 finches have been confiscated and transferred to a government vet and 10 trappers have been caught and will be summoned to court in due course. 

02.04.2025

The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) have published an interim report of their field operations against illegal bird trapping this spring. Although trapping is completely prohibited in spring, CABS teams were able to film a total of 19 poachers and reported them to the police. A total of 40 sets of clap nets, 10 electronic bird callers and 85 live finches were seized during the operations. Among the trappers reported is also an old ‘acquaintance’ of CABS who was reported in 2019 for illegal trapping, exposing his private parts and to run over our team with his car. CABS teams will be present in Malta and Gozo until the end of the bird migration season in May. 

Read our full press release here.

15.03.2025

In the Mediterranean many poachers are preparing their trapping sites now. That's why we are starting our spring bird protection camps. We will start in Malta, where we will take action against bird-trapping. In Lebanon, we started watching over stork roosts a few days earlier. On the Greek island of Zakynthos, we will be deploying teams for the third time to combat the widespread illegal spring hunting. Further campaigns will take place in northern and southern Italy and in Cyprus. By mid-May, we will have carried out a total of 9 missions with around 80 volunteers. Updates on the individual bird protection camps can be found regularly on our social media channels and on our website.