Cyprus: Autumn bird protection marathon successfully completed - 62 poachers caught!

Our bird protection camp in Brescia in northern Italy has come to an end after 5 weeks. Since the beginning of October, 38 participants from all over Europe joined forces to search the huge mountainous landscape between Lake Iseo and Lake Garda and found >50 active trapping sites. The police were able to catch and convict 48 poachers as a direct result of our field investigations. 477 snap traps, 251 bow traps and 71 nets, as well as 14 shotguns and several dozen live decoy birds (mainly skylarks and thrushes) were seized. 18 people were caught while hunting protected species (mainly meadow pipits). During the operation, there was also an arson attack on the vehicle of one of our long-standing volunteers, in which the car was completely burnt out. Fortunately, nobody was injured. However, the right-wing populist government in Rome's pro-hunting campaign is leading to an increasingly harsh climate for nature conservation and bird protection in the area.

Millions of songbirds illegally trapped and served as food in tourist hotspot

EXCLUSIVE: Despite being banned for many years, an estimated 2 – 3 million songbirds are illegally poached in Cyprus each year to be served up as lucrative delicacies at Brit tourist hot spots – including many rare species on the brink of extinction. The island has become a blackhole for European bred migratory birds where trade in protected species is estimated to drive an industry worth more than £13m a year. Nada Faoud – The Environment Editor of the Mirror Newspaper joined Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) team’s this autumn to witness the scale of the situation and the relentless work being done to combat. 

Full article here: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/...

11 migratory bird hunters convicted in Piedmont

In north-west Italy, CABS team carried out a four-day anti-poaching operation together with the carabinieri and game wardens from the WWF. Migratory bird hunting is less widespread there than in Lombardy to the east, for example, but hunters have now been caught shooting protected species and using banned electronic decoys in private hunting reserves in the provinces of Biella and Vercelli. Most of the hunters travelling from Bergamo and Brescia are financially strong guest hunters who pay several hundred euros a day to shoot thrushes, skylarks undisturbed in the lowland region. The 11 convicted men had shot protected bramblings and chaffinches as well as reed buntings and meadow pipits; and played thrush and lark calls over loudspeakers as a lure. 11 decoys, several shotguns and all the birds were confiscated by the officials. A big thank you goes to the Carabinieri officers, who worked very professionally and efficiently. Further joint operations in Piedmont are planned.

Major bird-trapping gang busted in Poland - 456 birds confiscated

Following a lengthy three-year investigation led by the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS), the police in Gdansk, Poland, have busted a Polish-Italian bird-trapping and trafficking ring. The lead suspect, a 54-year-old Italian, had operated a huge trapping facility with up to 33 nets on a farm north-west of the harbour city for years and smuggled the trapped birds to Italy via the Czech Republic and Austria together with Polish helpers. Using fake and manipulated breeding rings, the birds – estimated at more than 3000 birds since 2020 - were sold to hunters who used them as live decoys for migratory bird hunting. With the research and evidence gathered on the ground and in close cooperation between the Polish environmental police ECO Specialist Rescue Unit and the Italian Carabinieri-Forestale, police officers arrested the Italian during a raid a fortnight ago and seized 456 birds (5 redpolls, 21 blackbirds, 114 wood thrushes and 256 redwings as well as 60 other songbirds). CABS staff were present as expert witnesses and looked after the birds together with colleagues from the Pomeranian wildlife rescue centre in Ostoja. Most of them can probably be released into the wild soon. The perpetrator will face trial in Poland next spring and further investigations into the case are underway in Italy.