General Article 25 million birds illegally slaughtered in the Mediterranean every year

Topic Selected: Animal Rights
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Unlawfully shot, trapped or glued: tens of millions of birds are being killed illegally each year across the Mediterranean, according to the first scientific review of its kind to be carried out in the region by BirdLife International.

BirdLife and Partners have uncovered the shocking extent to which a number of birds are being illegally killed, putting together a list of the ten countries with the highest estimated annual death toll.

Although countries currently hit by conflict, such as Syria and Libya, feature high in the rankings, some European nations also fare poorly.

Italy (where 5.6 million birds are estimated to be killed illegally every year1) is second only to Egypt for the estimated mean number of illegal killings each year, with the Famagusta area of Cyprus the single worst location in the Mediterranean.2

Other European countries featuring in the top ten are; Greece (mean estimate of 0.7 million birds killed annually3), France (0.5 million4), Croatia (0.5 million5) and A...

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