Combating the poisoning of wild animals was the topic of an educational workshop organized on February 8th in the Cultural and Information Center Gospić. The workshop was organized as a part of BalkanDetox LIFE international project funded by the European Union. Croatian project coordinator Marija Martinko Ivanov said, as reported by Radio Gospić, that a single incident kills many more animals and that poisoning is extremely dangerous for people as well.

Ivan Budinski, expert adviser for nature protection in Association Biom, spoke about the topic of poisoning to farmers, herders, hunters, members of the local action group (LAG) and employees of the Velebit Nature Park. He pointed out that unfortunately the exact number of cases of poisoning remains unknown, because the perpetrators of these dishonorable actions will not report themselves, and many of the poisoned animals are being hidden and buried. Many people complain that their dogs and cats have been poisoned, but the final number of reports to the authorities is negligible.

We learn about such poisonings only when the victims are strictly protected species such as golden eagles, griffon vultures or wolves, and when civil society organizations for nature protection raise their voices. “People who have problems with wolves and jackals in Lika should certainly receive help, but not by poisoning these animals,” said Ivan Budinski, as reported by Novi list.

Translated into English by Tihana Goričnik