With the season for illegal bird trapping less than two weeks old, British Bases police in Dhekelia have dealt criminals an early blow after arresting a man using mistnets in the Ormidhia area.
The police’s Community Action Team dedicated to combating bird trapping, swooped in and arrested the man in the early hours of Saturday morning whilst working alongside members of the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) group.
Officers discovered the man in possession of two iron poles secured to the mistnet, an MP3 player, loud speaker, a USB stick and one remote receiver, which are all used by trappers to lure migrating Ampelopoulia (song birds) into the nets.
Shortly after his arrest, the Cypriot was interviewed by police and was released on €1,000 cash bail.
The police have confirmed that a court date is now pending, and he will answer charges relating to the Game and Wild Bird Ordinance.
Superintendent Andreas Pitsillides said this was an important early arrest to send out a strong warning to would-be trappers.
He explained: “This was a good arrest for the police force because although the season for illegal trapping only began at the end of August, it shows people that the police are out and about already working alongside our partners.”
In recent years, the amount of bird trapping within the SBAs has decreased significantly and Dhekelia’s Divisional Commander, Chief Superintendent Jon Ward, was keen to highlight that there would be no let up from the police this year.
He said: “Put quite simply, bird trapping will absolutely not be tolerated, and we fully intend to build on the success of last year and continue to work towards eradicating this crime from within our areas.
“Like in previous years, we cannot do this alone and we will call again on the local community to work with us to catch and arrest those found to be committing this crime.”
Earlier this year, Minister for the Armed Forces, Mark Lancaster, paid tribute to the success of the SBA Police and the Armed Forces in tackling the problem through arrests and the removal of invasive acacia which is used to provide cover for trappers setting up mistnets.
He said: “The work being done by our Armed Forces and SBA Police has made a significant difference to the survival of these magnificent birds in Cyprus and I applaud them for it. We will continue to protect them.”
An annual report released in March showed that in 2016, 888,000 songbird deaths were recorded in Cyprus, but by the following year there were 260,000 – a drop of 76%.
And as always, those efforts will be unrelenting according to Superintendent Pitsillides: “We will also be drawing on the success of our drones and covert cameras to catch perpetrators in the act and we have also been distributing leaflets to community leaders and those living in the village, so we can continue to work together successfully.
“We operate a zero-tolerance policy on bird trapping and when we catch someone in the act, they will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and hopefully, with even more robust penalties this year.”
