natural reserve
More than 1000 stuffed animals discovered in warehouse
Civil Guard officials are investigating and documenting the find. Photo: Civil Guard/dpa
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Elephants, lions, crocodiles – including many protected species: the Spanish police discovered numerous stuffed animals in a huge hall.
Spanish police have discovered a private collection of 1,090 stuffed animals, including elephants, rhinos and polar bears, in a huge warehouse near Valencia.
The Guardia Civil announced on its website that it was the largest private collection of its kind ever discovered in Spain. A total of 405 of the animals belonged to protected species, it was said.
The animals were found in a 50,000 square meter hall, about twice the area of a large furniture store or seven soccer fields in the Bundesliga. There they were presented in a lavish environment like in a museum.
Among other things, cheetahs, leopards, lions, lynxes, snow leopards and crocodiles have been found, as well as animals that are extinct in the wild, such as the African saber antelope, or almost extinct animals such as the Bengal tiger.
Why this huge collection, which also includes 198 elephant tusks, was only just discovered in the small town of Bétera, about 20 kilometers north-west of Valencia, remained unknown. The police also initially gave no information about the owner, against whom investigation proceedings had been opened for smuggling and violation of laws for the protection of endangered species.
It will now be checked where the animals came from. The owner, a well-known entrepreneur from Valencia, said he had inherited most of the animals from his father, wrote the newspaper “Las Provincias”. The police put the black market value of the collection at almost 30 million euros.