Prince of Wales wades in to condemn “barbaric slaughter” in Greek Cyprus
Thousands of birds are caught in nets across Cyprus each year
Prince Charles has written to the commander of British forces in Cyprus to condemn the slaughter of birds on the island.
In a private letter first published by the Mail on Sunday, the Prince said the practice of catching migrating songbirds and serving them up as a delicacy was “industrial scale killing”.
He claims in the letter that it is “big business, run by serious organised criminals”.
The birds are often caught on nets or on glue-coated sticks and served up for £65 a plate.
In his letter to Major-General Richard Cripwell, Commander of British Forces in Cyprus, and copied to President Nicos Anastasiades, Prince Charles writes: “I am writing with regard to the industrial-scale killing of songbirds which is currently occurring on the Cyprus Sovereign Base Area of Dhekelia.
“In particular, to ask you to have the infrastructure which permits this illegal slaughter (planted avenues of invasive acacia) to be removed from the MoD-administered land there by the start of the autumn migration period in September.
“This would not only at a stroke save hundreds of thousands of birds being killed illegally on British soil, but would also prevent significant profits from flowing into the pockets of the serious organised criminals who control this barbaric practice.
“Disturbingly, autumn mist-netting levels are now much higher on this British soil than in the Republic of Cyprus, with mist netting in the SBAs estimated to have increased 180 per cent since 2002.”
BirdLife Cyprus, a charity based on the island, welcomed the news.
“We welcome any sort of pressure in terms of illegal trapping situation be it from the EU or Prince Charles… any support for our efforts,” the organisation’s campaign officer Tassos Shialis told the Cyprus Mail .
“We hope that coming from Prince Charles the situation will be taken more seriously. We as BirdLife are lower down on the list when we complain. We have been at it for ten years but we are not being heard as loudly.”