MURDER – BIRD MURDER

250 million every year (in Italy alone)

PROTECTING BIRDS IS ENVIRONMENTAL CARE

The birds of Europe and Africa are a shared heritage. They are necessary for the biological balance, and thereby for human survival. 250 million birds destroy in a single month as many harmful insects as would weigh at least as much as 50,675 Volkswagen cars.

BIRD MURDER IS HUMAN MURDER

Instead of birds, man uses tons of insecticides for pest control, which are sprayed out and in turn make their way through the food chain into the human body, causing harm.

“PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AND NORTHERN EUROPE WHO WANT TO HEAR THEIR BIRDS SING: HELP US.”

With this cry for help, environmentally conscious Italians express their desperate struggle against the mass extermination of European migratory birds.

Contrary to the deliberate falsifications spread, for instance, by travel agencies, the extermination continues in Italy at a cruel pace: 250 million migratory birds are killed every year, often without a hunting license. This takes place through shooting, netting, lime traps, and snares, especially in southern Italy down to Sicily (except Bozen).

The Bird Observatory in Radolfzell reports a CATASTROPHIC DECLINE OF EUROPEAN MIGRATORY BIRDS, many of which are now extinct.

These murdered birds are not eaten by the poor but end up as delicacies in the mouths of the wealthy. A bird weighing 4–5 grams, such as a robin, becomes a meal for a glutton.

In just one month, these annihilated birds could have destroyed at least 37,500,000 kg of harmful insects (equal to 50,675 Volkswagen cars) and saved agriculture from enormous damage. As a replacement, chemical insecticides are used — which means: MURDER OF HUMANS THROUGH POISONOUS FOOD OR STARVATION, when trillions of non-poisonous insects destroy crops.

“SAVE OUR MIGRATORY BIRDS!”

Nowadays, even small children take part in bird hunting, using toy pistols (especially against robins). The magazine Diana reported that from a single railway station in Foggia, transports included 28,563 kg of dead and 8,680 kg of live birds.

The living ones, intended as “decoys,” are caught with broken wings and legs, blinded, or have their eyelids sewn shut, transformed into living toys, kept in dark basements and tiny cages. Up to 52,000 decoy birds are annually sold on the market in Northern Italy. Their helpless cries, which express pain and fear, are used to lure other birds to their death during spring migration.

Other decoy birds are hung by their tails or broken legs, with their heads facing downwards, until they die screaming.

Thus, humankind mistreats its irreplaceable allies — beings without whom it cannot survive.

If you do not want to be counted among the irresponsible, help by:

• explaining these environmentally destructive conditions to your acquaintances;
• signing petitions against the killing of birds to be sent to the governments of the EEC countries, tourist agencies, and the ADAC (German automobile club);
• sending personal protest letters to the following addresses:

Also:
- Boycott travel and goods unless urgently requested by Italians themselves, the proceeds of which go directly to the protection of European migratory birds.

Support the COMMITTEE AGAINST BIRD MURDER (Komitee gegen den Vogelmord), in cooperation with the German Animal Protection Federation (Deutscher Tierschutz).

Committee’s address:
Komitee gegen den Vogelmord
c/o Dr. Renate Reitler
D-521 Bielefeld
West Germany

The committee has branches in the following cities: Augsburg, Hamburg, Mannheim, Munich, Osnabrück, and Berlin.

It is in contact with the following international organizations:
Landesliga gegen die Vernichtung der Vögel, Florence
Internationale Anti-Jagdkomitee, Turin
Stiftung Mondial Alternatief, “International Action – Stop Mass Bird Murder,” Zandvoord, Netherlands.

Organized Mass Murder of Migratory Birds is War Against Humanity and Nature

According to scientific research by the bird station in Radolfzell, the number of our migratory birds has decreased by between 50% and 88% (Max Planck Society Report, March 21, 1973). Different species are facing extinction. Despite this, the mass extermination of migratory birds continues in Italy.

Just as in Caesar’s time when “res nullius” (“no one’s property”) was killed — everything that crawled or flew — so it is today! In contrast to the decline in migratory birds, the number of hunters increases every year:

• 1960 – 800,000 hunters
• 1970 – 1,600,000 hunters
• 1971 – 1,800,000 hunters
• 1972 – 2,000,000 hunters

There are 400,000 bird trappers, “uccellatori,” who, with various nets, lime traps, mirrors, and whistles, lure migratory birds. Of these, 3,600 licensed trappers (many of them well-known politicians) use so-called “roccoli.” In these trap fields, entire flocks are captured as they fly over the Alps. About 300,000 bird catchers practice the sadistic art of making captured birds sing — the so-called “zimbelli” (decoy birds).

“When the small finches are fully grown, they are trained to attract their own kind. This is done by blinding them. The bird’s eyes are pierced with a red-hot needle (or sharp wire). The eyelids are then burned and sealed, and the bird can only sing when it has lost its sight.”
— From L’arte dell’andar per uccelli con vischio, by Amadeo Giacomini (1969)

According to La Stampa (Turin, December 15, 1972), there are not only these licensed trappers but also a very high number of illegal poachers.

According to the association Libera Caccia (“Free Hunt”), Italian hunters and poachers fire 840 shots per person per year. Every year, 512 million cartridges are discharged in Italy. At a cost of 50 lire per cartridge, this amounts to 75 billion lire (approx. 472 million kronor).

The Italian newspapers Epoca and Natura e Civiltà reported on November 9, 1972, that the number of bird traps has doubled in recent years.

The increase in hunters is due in part to Italy’s growing prosperity, which allows many to afford weapons, cars, and licenses. But it is also the result of a “last-minute rush” — birds are becoming scarce, and hunters wish to prove their “manhood” once more.

Hunting in Italy cannot be compared to that in our countries. Every hunter has the right to shoot within a 100-meter radius of houses, roads, and paths, meaning homes and gardens are surrounded by a deadly zone at least 180 meters wide.

According to reports from Italy’s largest arms manufacturers (in Brescia), there were 1.5 million hunters in 1971, equipped with modern weapons — mostly semi-automatic shotguns. In addition, many small-caliber weapons (“spingardi”) are in use.

Italy has the longest hunting season in the world; it begins in the last week of August and lasts for migratory birds until March 31 — in some southern regions until the end of May. The number of hunters exceeds the total armed forces of NATO in Europe.

Having nearly exterminated its native wildlife, Italy imports 12.6 million kronor’s worth of game annually to shoot immediately. Since the local game is depleted on the first hunting days, hunters then turn to the migratory birds arriving from the north, seeking refuge in their home territories.

Bird trapping is carried out partly with expensive 400-meter-long nylon nets in which birds become entangled. They are pulled from the meshes, often losing their feet, wings, or heads in the process. The luckiest die from strangulation.

In the region of Friuli–Venezia Giulia, there are 1,274 bird-trapping centers in operation. In Trentino–Alto Adige, there are 4,000 hunting huts. On a 10 km stretch in the Etsch Valley alone, 388 hunting blinds create such dense barriers that only a few birds survive.

In 1970, the Lega Nazionale contro la Distruzione degli Uccelli (“National League Against the Extermination of Birds”) and the Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera collected 500,000 protest signatures against bird murder.

On October 25, 1972, Count Elio Carlo Ferrero, president of the Comitato Internazionale Anticaccia (International Anti-Hunting Committee) in Turin, handed over to the Italian government more than one million travel boycott signatures from across Europe.

Arms factories, ammunition industries, hunting-equipment manufacturers, canned meat producers, and corrupt politicians (many of them avid hunters) prevent the enforcement of even the most minimal protective regulations for migratory birds.

The Italian government remains deaf to worldwide protests. The continued bird slaughter in Italy ultimately means the downfall of European and African fauna. Only measures that impact Italy’s economy can compel the government to end this war against nature.

KOMITEE GEGEN DEN VOGELMORD – KOMMITTÉN MOT FÅGELMORD
(The above text is a translation of a German brochure.)

IS THIS ART – OR THE ART OF EXTINCTION?

Three hundred species of animals, birds, and fish have been eliminated by civilized man in the past 250 years. These are now permanently extinct. Another thousand species are now in immediate danger of total extinction.

In recent years, modern industrial civilization, by emitting into the air, the ozone layer, into the bodies of animals and man, and into the world’s water tables, has dangerously affected the balance of nature.

We do not have enough scientific knowledge either to monitor or control the damage we are doing to our world.

The wanton killing of birds and animals for killing’s sake still continues. For example, in Italy, it is estimated that 250 million migrating birds are trapped and killed needlessly each year.

Unfortunately, in this case, this destruction of bird life is blessed by the Roman Catholic Church in Italy.

Werner Brenner

Printed by Tryckbaren, Lund 1975