In recent days, the staff and volunteers of Rewilding Apennines and Salviamo l'Orso, during some monitoring and control activities carried out together with the Carabinieri Forestali and the Surveillance Service of the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise in total they found the carcasses of nine wolves, five griffins and two ravens, all of which died of poisoning.
The episode took place in the territory of Cocullo, in the Province of L'Aquila, outside protected areas, but in the important ecological corridor that unites the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise and the Sirente Velino Regional Natural Park, an area also frequented by the rare Marsican brown bear. In recent years, similar episodes have occurred in the same area and in the same period, which in one case also killed two golden eagles by poisoning.
The spreading of poisoned baits or carcasses with poison on the territory is a criminal practice which must be fought and condemned and which it poses a threat to the safety, not only of wildlife, but also of humans and pets. The impact of these illegal activities is enormous and often difficult to verify in its entirety, reflecting in cascade on all the animals that from time to time feed on these sources.
Rewilding Apennines, Salviamo l'Orso, Io Non Ho Paura Del Lupo, Abruzzo Ornithological Station, History of Fauna, LIPU, Altura, Orso & Friends, Apennine ecosystem, National Animal Protection Agency, FederTrek, Paliurus, Mountain Wilderness, Ambiente e/è Life, On the Bear's Side, WWF Abruzzo, Pro Natura Abruzzo, CONALPA, CAI Abruzzo, Ecotur, Intramontes and Wildlife Adventures have written and sent a letter to the national, regional and local authorities responsible for the environment and the judicial police to forcefully ask for incisive actions to prevent the phenomenon of poisoning and to strengthen the intervention and investigation procedures, in order to reduce as much as possible this very serious risk for biodiversity and for human communities, making themselves available for a meeting. Finally, we turn to every single citizen, so that he is aware that these crimes are unfortunately still present and can be the spokesperson for a different culture, made up of knowledge and respect for nature, attachment to the place and coexistence with wildlife.
