CABS Information from Mike & Joy Broker

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Mike and Joy Broker sent in this information which they received from the Campaign Against Bird Slaughter organisation.
As of last weekend, with the completion of our operations in Cyprus and the northern Italian Alps of Brescia, all our autumn Bird Protection Camps across the Mediterranean region have now ended.

Cyprus: almost 3,500 traps and nets collected!

 

Since the end of August, more than 30 nature and animal friends from Great Britain, Germany, Italy, France, Slovenia, Switzerland, Serbia, Poland, Hungary, Cyprus and the USA have been working on the Mediterranean island. In 9 weeks, they found 3,353 limesticks, 143 nets, 96 electronic decoys and dismantled them together with the police and the Game Fund. 20 poachers were prosecuted based on our findings. 420 birds were liberated from the illegal traps. The bird migration is over now and the poaching should now stop for a short time. We will launch our next operation on Cyprus when the winter trapping season begins in just a few weeks.

 

Brescia: 48 poachers convicted!

 

As the winter creeps in and the frosts begin to bite, we have also ended our 5-week mission in the Alpine mountains between Lake Garda and Lake Iseo on Sunday. Over the course of the operation, approximately 50 participants have found 73 active trapping sites containing a total of 96 bow traps, 630 snap traps, 41 mist nets,15 small nets and 7 cage traps. The police have convicted 48 poachers based on our findings. In premises searches conducted by the authorities, another 62 trapping nets and around 450 frozen songbirds were seized. More than 800 live finches, thrushes, tits and robins were handed over to CABS for release. These high figures may be somewhat mis-leading, bird poaching in Brescia is declining – we’ve never had such few active trapping sites!

 

Spain: Losing the limesticks!? 

 

Our campaign against bird trapping in eastern Spain has also been successful: During our 10-day mission in Valencia and Castellon, we found only 6 active trapping installations (the so-called “parany”) with limesticks. Two poachers were convicted by the Guardia Civil. Only 5 years ago we found hundreds of these large trapping sites of this kind – it seems our actions have resulted in the poaching being almost brought to a halt in no time!

 

Malta: 6,000 trapping licences approved.

 

Despite the pending lawsuit in the European Court of Justice, songbird trapping on Malta is now in full swing. To secure the votes of trappers for the next election, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has authorised the approval of an incredible 6,000 licenses to trap finches, thrushes and plovers. CABS teams are in place and ready to document the mass catch for the European Commission. In the last two weeks alone, a total of 140 sites have been reported to the WBRU (Wild Bird Regulation Unit), whom will examine each case individually.

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Our autumn missions – from the action in Northern Italy against the trapping of flycatchers (August), through our first operation in Lebanon (September) and the Birds of Prey Campaigns in Messina and Malta (both in September) to the completion of the major Bird Protection Camps in Cyprus and Brescia – have cost about €70,000.. Without your donations we would not have been able to achieve these results and carry out these missions to this extent. Our successes across all these poaching hotspots are therefore our combined success!

 

Thank you for the great support.