Attack on ornithologists in Greece: brutal assault by recreational hunters
Masked recreational hunters assault a team from the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) on Zakynthos; three birdwatchers are injured and taken to hospital; police have identified initial suspects
A group of approximately 15 masked recreational hunters attacked and beat a team of international ornithologists from the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) on the Greek island of Zakynthos on 16 April 2025, the organisation announced in a statement.
As a result, three birdwatchers were injured and taken to hospital for treatment. Police have launched an investigation.
According to CABS, the incident occurred yesterday at around 12:30 p.m. on the Keri peninsula, an area known for the mass illegal shooting of migratory birds.
Keri is considered a poaching hotspot on the island – from dozens of hunting hides, recreational hunters target strictly protected turtle doves, golden orioles, swallows and birds of prey here in spring – outside the hunting season.
Despite a total hunting ban, many recreational hunters were present, most of them carrying shotguns. «
While our team was documenting the situation, some of them approached us and began insulting and threatening us. Within minutes, other angry recreational hunters joined them and the situation got completely out of hand,” said Italian team member Stefania Travaglia.
She added that her team members were punched in the face without warning, thrown to the ground and kicked in the stomach.
«They also threw stones at us and warned us never to return to Keri if we valued our lives,” recalls British member Emma Phipps. A smartphone and a camera containing evidence were destroyed and a backpack was stolen.
A Slovenian committee worker suffered a broken nose, an Italian employee sustained a serious leg wound, two British female volunteers and a bird conservationist from Switzerland sustained bruises and scratches.
The men only stopped when they realized that the police had been called for help and a patrol was on its way to the scene, and ran away. While officers attempted to find and identify the attackers, one female and two male birdwatchers were taken to the General Hospital St. Dionysios in Zakynthos, where doctors treated a broken nose as well as several open wounds and bruises caused by the attack.
«The police on Zakynthos have already identified a number of suspects who have been summoned for questioning,» reported Ms. Phipps.
The president of CABS, Karl-Heinz Kreutzer, condemned the attack today as a "brutal and cowardly assault" and called on the authorities to do everything possible to bring those responsible to justice. He added that CABS would not yield to violence and intimidation tactics and that its members would continue their activities on Zakynthos until the end of the month.
RECREATIONAL HUNTER RADAR
On the trail of concealed animal welfare offences, poaching and/or criminal activity? Report suspected cases to us! Help with the great recreational hunter radar.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier Poaching and hunting crime in Switzerland we document cases, legal questions and recurring patterns. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
