Members of the bird protection activist group Cabs, whose members were threatened with a gun by a Paralimni man on Thursday, thanked the police for their support on Saturday but called for an increased presence of anti-poaching officers.
The committee against bird slaughtering (Cabs) said that the man, who was later arrested, had installed lime sticks on trees in his orchard. Lime sticks are used for the illegal trapping of blackcaps – ambelopoulia – that are considered a traditional delicacy.
“The man fired seven times against a group of four international volunteers of Cabs who were investigating to locate and report to the police illegal bird trapping equipment,” the group said.
One of the volunteers, Abigail Cooper, 21, from the UK, said that the man, went inside his cabin to get his shotgun and fired into the air.
The group claimed that they later discovered the man was an Elam member who had stood in last year’s parliamentary elections.
“Police interfered 50 minutes after the attack and located the perpetrator, who, as it turned out, was Elam’s candidate in the last parliamentary elections,” it said.
It added that four more Elam members arrived at the scene, among them Elam MP, Linos Papayiannis, who “expressed concerns for their safety” and tried to get them to leave.
Police would not comment on Saturday as to the identity of the people involved.
Cabs called on the justice and interior ministers and the Game and Fauna Service to increase the numbers of the anti-poaching squad officers so that they can patrol around the clock the “trapping areas of the Larnaca and Famagusta districts to prevent illegal activities and protect volunteers”.
Head of Cabs, Alexander Heyd, said that volunteers have so far reported 21 bird trapping locations to the police which led to seven arrests.
The activists – two women, 21 and 22, from Britain and two Italian men, 39 and 45 – reported to police that on Thursday morning they had been threatened by the 50-year-old man, reportedly a restaurateur from Paralimni. He was arrested later in the day and taken to Famagusta CID.
Later in the day some 60 people protested outside the Famagusta police station against the presence of the Cabs activists in the area, a well-known centre of bird trapping, and dispersed without incident.
Cabs are a group of activists whose members visit Cyprus regularly as part of checks in countries where bird trappers, hunters and animal traders commit offences against European nature protection legislation.
According to the group, in Italy, France, Malta, and Cyprus members “annually collect more than 50,000 mist nets and traps, monitor hundreds of hunters, and support the police in bringing poachers to justice.”
