For several days now, at least in the province of Famagusta, both the new exhaustive legislation on the illegal hunting of wild birds and the action of foreign activists of the well-known organization Committee Against Bird Slaughtering (CABS) have been on the rise.
The cause was last Thursday when A 50-year-old man was arrested in Paralimni for shooting to intimidate these activists who entered his property to locate thugs. Subsequently and during his detention, more than 50 people protested outside the Famagusta TAE in Paralimni against the activists' actions.
The President of the Association of Sustainable Hunting Methods, Stavros Neophytou, admitted on SIGMA's camera in a relevant report in Tomes in Event last Friday that both the new legislation and the action of the activists have provoked reactions in the province of Famagusta.
On the other hand, exclusively on SIGMA's camera spoke one of the four protagonists of the day before yesterday, an Italian activist, who described their action and their close cooperation with the Police, as described in recent press release of the organization. At the same time, he admitted that despite what they are accused of, their action does not extend to interventions within fenced properties.
However, undoubtedly the new legislation seems to be quite strict, since in just a few weeks out-of-court fines of more than 30 thousand euros have been imposed on just four people, and only in the province of Famagusta.
The hunters in Liopetri hand over their ballot papers
The result of all this is the recent decision of the Hunting Association of Liopetri, which is expected to provoke a series of other reactions.
Specifically, tomorrow, Tuesday 19 September, the committee of the Liopetri Hunting Association, after its decision, invites all its members to hand over their ballot papers, thus expressing their strong reaction to the new legislation for the protection and management of wild birds that was voted last June in Parliament.
In detail, the announcement:
"After a lot of reflection and following the developments around the way the new weapons are being used in our hunting, we are forced to take a public stand on the war that started methodically against the whole hunting world.
We explain, before some people misunderstand, that we agree with the implementation of the laws that have been passed. However, in order to combat poaching, protect game and enrich their habitats.
Additional amounts have been included in hunting licenses, for training (!) Dogs, for escorting dogs to the hare, for additional dog license for snipe, for chewing gum and so on. But everyone should go hunting with 1 dog. The other dogs stay in the cages. So how many hares escaped this law? Let those in charge tell us.
The authorities who are called to implement these laws, the only thing they run to prevent is to take money from the out-of-court settlements in their coffers. Their only concern is to report unsuspecting hunters, who may have forgotten 12 chewing gums in the fridge, may have had 1 pair of birds in their cage for their grandchildren, or anything else imaginable, they are reported with the most boring sentences. While the legislation for each offense states .. up to 2000 € for example, the authorities have turned the ceiling of the fine into a rule. Not even a cent below, even if until the day someone was arrested for committing the heinous offenses he did not even have a call for illegal parking. And in fact with provocative behaviors, sometimes, from what we heard.
However, we did not see any change in the habitats. No one was arrested for the poisoning of dogs, for the poaching of hares, owls, prey that we have in Cyprus. We did not see our hunting being enriched. No effort. There is no reason, it seems, since hunters passionate about their sport still go and pay for permits and whatever else is asked of them is enough to go hunting, nothing else needs to be done.
After discussing the above in our session, we decided:
• to invite you all, members of our Hunting Association and not, to a gathering that will take place at the building of our Association on Tuesday 19/9/2017 at 20:30. To discuss the above and make our voices heard.
• It was decided by the Committee of the Liopetri Hunting Association that at the rally we will collect our ballot papers, so that no one votes for any politician. We are, above all, hunters, without any party affiliation and we must all realize that.
• Some MPs said they would attend to hear us. Let us not disappoint them. Everyone in the gathering. Bringing with us our ballot papers and ballot papers of anyone else who agrees but cannot attend that night. ”
SotiraNews