Dear (the name of your
MEP here),
It is disturbing to hear that the Parany
trapping method, illegal since 2002, is still flourishing in the Valencian and
southern Catalonian regions in Spain, and that that the regional government in
Valencia plans to amend the hunting law to permit the practice to be conducted
legally.
This is unacceptable in the first half of
the 21st Century. Not only is the practice cruel to the birds
involved, it is also conducted on a massive and non-selective scale which not
only negatively affects the populations of the legally huntable species, but
also a large number of other protected song bird species.
Monitoring studies by local
conservationists have shown however that this practice has continued almost
unabated until the present day. It is estimated that in Valencia alone over 1 ½
million migrant song birds fall victim to Parany trapping every year - in the
course of a single month!
The Parany trapping technique involves the
planting and cultivation of high stands of trees (mostly enclosed on private
property), interlaced with poles to which sticks impregnated with glue or lime
are attached. The migrant song birds are attracted to the tree groups as ideal
night roosts on migration. To ensure a high catch illegal electronic lures are
also employed. The plumage of the birds settling on the sticks becomes glued
together and the birds fall helpless to the ground. There they are collected by
the trapper who kills them - often by crushing the bird’s skull between thumb
and fingers.
The main targets of the trappers are
thrushes, which may legally be trapped in season, -although not employing such
a non-selective method and on a massive scale which is in clear contravention
of the EU Bird Protection Guidelines. The by-catch is high, amounting to an
estimated 23 % and more of birds caught, including Blackcaps and Robins which transit
the region on migration to Southern Spain and North Africa and other protected
insectivorous species.
The Parany trapping method is in
contravention of Spanish national law and the European Union Bird Protection Guidelines.
Conservationists throughout the EU will resist all and any attempts to permit
this mass and non-selective bird trapping method.
You are therefore urged, in your capacity
as a member of the European Parliament, to investigate and challenge this potential
grave breach of European legislation. The European Commission must not accept
the toleration, or far worse legalisation, of the Parany trapping method. This
would open the door for pressure to reintroduce similar non-selective
‘traditional’ and ‘socio-cultural’ practices in other member states of the EU
and severely weaken the protection afforded by the Birds Directive.
Sincerely,
(Name and address)
