He held nearly 250 illegally stuffed specimens – OFB
He was sentenced. A collector from the Nice region who owned a thousand stuffed birds, including nearly 250 specimens illegally detained, was given a three-month suspended prison sentence, the French Biodiversity Office (OFB) reported.
This penalty is accompanied by a ban on possession of a weapon for three years and 8,000 euros in damages for the benefit of the Bird Protection League.
The conviction relates to the facts of naturalization and possession of protected animals, importation of species regulated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) and possession of prohibited weapons. The man is said to have hunted many of the “trophies” that were seized.
Also exotic species
In 2019, the environmental inspectors of the departmental service of the OFB had placed under surveillance the actions of this man suspected of taking samples of protected wildlife, with the aim of naturalizing them.
“In total, this frantic collector was unable to prove, for 244 specimens, their anteriority in relation to the 1976 convention which protects them, thus holding them completely illegally”, notes Éric Hansen, interregional director of Paca and Corsica of the OFB.
The man, who indulged in this passion for many years, possessed, in addition to the birds hunted in the region, many exotic species that he obtained during trips abroad.