Illegal Breeding and Seizure of Exotic Animals in Mallorca
Police have arrested two Russian nationals after a raid in Mallorca uncovered evidence of illegal online trade in exotic cats. The suspects are also alleged to have crossbred wild cats with domestic cats to produce valuable hybrids.
The authorities seized 19 animals, including a caracal and two servals, during an operation in Manacor on the Balearic island of Mallorca, the Guardia Civil reported.
More than 40 illegal animal passports from countries such as Russia, Belarus and China were also found.
Most of the animals offered for sale originated from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine and were smuggled illegally into the European Union.
The operation began in March of last year, when the Guardia Civil became aware of a couple in Palma de Mallorca who were breeding servals, caracals and hybrids with domestic cats to sell them via social networks.
The suspects are alleged to have offered white tigers, for which they were asking 60’000 euros, Eurasian lynxes, hyenas, leopards and pumas for sale.
Attempts to breed and keep these cat species as pets are widespread in Russia and Ukraine, and the trend is now being replicated in other countries as well, the authorities added.
The investigation revealed that the breeding of caracals and servals in Mallorca was merely the “tip of the iceberg” of an international network involving other protected species such as white tigers.
Those arrested include a 48-year-old Russian man and a 46-year-old Russian woman. A 48-year-old Israeli is also under investigation.
The animals are being taken to a rescue and rehabilitation centre for exotic mammals in Alicante in eastern Spain.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier The Role and Criticism of Recreational Hunters we shed light on the training, power and self-image of recreational hunters. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
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.
