Our Summer campaigns are starting

CABS-teams will take action against illegal songbird trapping in northern Italy and search for nets and snares for pied flycatchers and redstarts in the mountains. In southern Italy, we have several teams working to combat the illegal hunting of migratory birds such as birds of prey and garden warblers. Another team is active in Malta, mapping illegal wader bird trapping sites. Last but not least, several employees of CABS and our partner MESHC will carry out the first checks at dangerous bottlenecks for migrating raptors in Lebanon to monitor the passage of honey buzzards and harriers. Wish us and the birds luck!

Malta’s worst poacher found guilty – again!

The Court in Valletta have delivered the sentencing in the case against a poacher who was caught with an enormous illegal collection of live protected birds on 20 September 2022. On this day, the police were responding to a report from the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS), who informed the authorities about an illegal bird trapping site in Għaxaq. When police inspected the site, they found the accused, an active clap-net and various aviaries containing 137 live protected birds, including 16 Green Sandpipers, 16 Common Sandpipers, 16 Wood Sandpipers, 13 Little Ringed Plovers, 9 Little Stints, 5 Common Ringed Plovers, 3 Black Winged Stilt, 2 Temminck’s Stint, 1 Greenshank, 1 Red Throated Pipit, 1 Yellow Wagtail and more than 50 finches of different species. In view of the overwhelming evidence, the man admitted most of the charges. In view of the overwhelming evidence the man admitted to most charges and was handed a one-year prison term suspended for 2 years and a fine of 1,000 Euros. A few days after the raid, the birds were ringed and released back into the wild at Għadira, a protected wetland reserve managed by our partners at BirdLife Malta. The verdict also reflects the man is a repeat offender who previously spent time in jail for the illegal shooting of protected Mute Swans in St. Thomas Bay in January 2002. Back then, the accused and two of his cousins used a speedboat to chase the exhausted birds and killed seven of them. IN April 2017 and August 2019, he was also reported by CABS staff for hunting during closed season and for illegal trapping of protected waders.

View here a video showing the release and confiscation of the birds on YouTube.

All's well that ends well for the young Montague's Harrier

After 382 days of intensive treatment at the Bergische Greifvogelhilfe bird of prey sanctuary, a rare Montagu's harrier was successfully released into the wild in the Zülpicher Börde region. The young female was caught by a combine harvester during the harvest last year when she was still a fledgling and suffered severe damage to her plumage. She and her sibling – a male – were only saved thanks to the attentiveness of the farmer, who discovered the injured birds after the harvest and immediately notified our head office and the sanctuary. Thanks to the professional care the unlucky bird has finally moulted over the last few months and now has a complete set of new feathers again, just in time for the start of the migration season. At the weekend, the young harrier was successfully released into the wild by station manager Dirk Sindhu, Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS), members of the Düren bio station and the farmer close to where it was first found. The action was accompanied by NRW Environment Minister Oliver Krischer, himself an enthusiastic ornithologist and resident of the Zülpicher Börde. The young male is not yet ready to moult, as is normal for his age, and will have to wait until next spring.

4,000 poachers convicted!

The Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) is celebrating our 50th anniversary – time for another statistic. In the last half-century, the organisation has contributed to the conviction of 4,000 poachers. CABS's early efforts focused on dismantling illegal traps and nets. Over time, our strategy has evolved to directly targeting poachers, in cooperation with law enforcement. This shift is evident in our conviction statistics:

• First 25 years: 303 poachers convicted.

• Last 25 years: 3,711 poachers convicted, more than ten times the number from the first half of our history.

The majority of convictions have occurred in Italy (2,439), CABS's oldest area of operation, followed by Cyprus (671) and Malta (364). In Germany, 153 poachers have been convicted. Available data on the gender of offenders indicates a significant disparity, with 99% of convicted poachers being unsurprisingly men!