CABS at the Global Birdfair 2025 in Rutland Water
11.07.2025
The world’s largest annual celebration of birds, generating huge support for bird conservation, is taking place at Rutland Water, UK from 11th – 13th July 2025. Global Birdfair will host around 250 exhibitors across various sectors including conservation organisations. As ever, several CABS members are busy setting up our stand to showcase our migratory bird protection work in the poaching hotspots of the Mediterranean. To mark the occasion, we’re also celebrating our 50th anniversary this year and keen to highlight some of our successes and achievements over the last half century. Come and meet us at our lovely stand sponsored by Insite Graphics and learn more about how you can get involved in supporting and enabling migratory bird protection in Robin Marquee Stand R72.
Update from our Harrier-project in Germany
26.06.2025
The grain harvest is now in full swing in the Rhineland in Germany and many barley fields have already been threshed. The nests of Marsh harriers and Montagu's harriers, which breed on the ground, are now in danger, as the young birds have not yet fledged and often end up unseen in the harvester. We have mapped the nests in the region between Aachen and Cologne and marked them in collaboration with the farmers. They now leave a 25 x 25 metre square around the nest during harvesting, where the harriers can raise their chicks. For further protection, we set up an electric fence at the first nest yesterday. Other nests are located in wheat fields that have not yet been harvested or in gravel pits, where the young birds will probably be able to fledge without help.
The Italian government against wildlife
11.06.2025
The Italian government is planning a significant softening of nature conservation law. Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, a passionate hunter, has presented comprehensive changes to the hunting legislation. The right-wing government wants to authorise the trapping of wild birds with nets in order to use them as live decoys. Currently, bird trapping is completely prohibited, and the use of decoys is only permitted for hunting seven species. In future, decoys will be allowed to be used to hunt all 47 huntable bird species. Our Italian members are joining forces with nature conservation organisations across Italy to prevent the proposed changes. Today, we have published a video in which critical voices from the nature conservation community have their say and call on Parliament to vote against the plans.
82 poachers taken out of circulation!
25.05.2025
The last migratory birds have now arrived here, meaning that the bird migration in Europe has come to an end. From mid-February to mid-May, over 70 nature lovers worked with us to secure the dangerous paths of the animals. At the bird protection camps organised by the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) in France, Italy, Greece, Malta, Cyprus and Lebanon, we caught 82 poachers, while the police and hunting authorities were able to recover 568 traps (mainly limesticks), 158 nets, 6 hunting weapons, 240 rounds of ammunition and 33 electronic decoys on the basis of our information.
The spring operations were financed exclusively by donations - thank you very much for your support!
Spring operations in Italy: 12 poachers caught
22.05.2025
In Italy, we caught 12 poachers in a good dozen missions from February to May. In northern Italy, we convicted three animal dealers who were illegally offering wild birds for sale. On the islands of Ponza and Ischia, two people were caught trapping birds by the authorities following our tip-offs. Teams were also deployed on the Strait of Messina in southern Italy to take action against illegal spring hunting. Thanks to our preliminary work, the police were able to confiscate a total of 21 nets, 130 bird traps, 3 decoys and 2 hunting weapons. Around 300 birds were confiscated from illegal holdings and are now waiting to be released into the wild.
Find out more about our bird protection campaigns and operations in Italy here.
Spring anti-poaching actions in Lebanon complete
29.04.2025
This spring, CABS teams carried out several operations in Lebanon together with our partners from MESHC and SPNL. Illegal bird shooting and trapping of protected species in the Cedar State continues to present a huge wildlife conservation crisis for migratory birds. In the north of the country alone, we found over 50 white storks shot within just a few days. In one particularly serious case, a poacher was filmed by us shooting down a Lesser spotted eagle and a detailed casefile of evidence reported to the Environmental Prosecutors office (Watch the video here). We were also able to dismantle a total of 41 mist-nets and 270 limesticks and seize them together with the police. We are planning to deploy several teams in Lebanon this autumn to cover the entire peak migration period.
Spring camp in Malta complete – 31 poachers convicted
12.05.2025
From the beginning of March to early May, 3 CABS teams comprised of 25 volunteers were on duty in Malta to take action against illegal bird trapping with clap-nets and the shooting of protected species. As a direct result of our field investigations we were able to catch and convict 25 bird trappers and 6 hunters. The Environmental Police (EPU) confiscated 45 clap-nets, 11 electronic decoys, a mist-net and a cage trap. Our action also lead to the confiscation of over 100 live decoys. In Malta, bird trapping and turtle dove hunting in particular have gotten out of control. The shooting of birds of prey, on the other hand, continues to decline – this spring, none of our teams registered a shooting of large migratory birds. Our action will continue on the Mediterranean island in August.
Action against migratory bird poaching on Zakynthos.
07.05.2025
UPDATE - The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) spring bird protection camp has now been running for the past month on the popular holiday island of Zakynthos, Greece. During that time, our teams have faced a brutal assault and documented dozens of cases of illegal shooting of protected migratory birds during closed season, with species such as Golden orioles, Bee-eaters and Turtle dove being particularly affected. So far this spring, 19 poachers have been reported to the authorities and several suspects identified and summoned. However, it’s clear that more support is needed from the mainland to tackle the situation proportionately.
Read today's full Press Release here.
Milestone anniversary - CABS turns 50!
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.
Your donation makes the difference!
Your donation will enable us to fund our campaigns and bird protection camps throughout Europe, to keep up the fight for migratory birds. CABS is almost exclusively financed with private donations, from nature and animal lovers, as well as foundations and nature conservation associations. In order to stay independent, we do not receive public funds and we refuse business sponsorships. CABS is recognised as non-profit, thus, donations are tax-deductible. For a donation of 25 € or more, you will receive a donation receipt at the beginning of the following year.
