The Spanish Civil Guard reported Sunday that it seized more than 1,000 stuffed animals, hundreds of them belonging to protected species including tigers, elephants and polar bears. The discovery occurred in a warehouse in Bétera, near Valencia, in eastern Spain as part of a smuggling investigation. It is a private collection of more than 1,090 stuffed animals estimated at 29 million euros ($32 million). The owner is a businessman from the region who is being investigated for smuggling and various crimes against the environment. Among the pieces were 405 animals of protected species, including an already extinct African scimitar oryx and other threatened species such as a Bengal tiger and a white antelope. It was “seized the largest finding of protected stuffed animals nationwide and one of the largest in Europe,” the authority said in a statement, as reported by the AFP agency. Among these specimens were found different types of animals with different levels of protection such as the cheetah, leopard, lion, lynx, polar bear, snow panther, white rhinoceros, “said the police body, adding that 198 tusks of pachyderms were also seized.
The @guardiacivil has seized the largest find of protected stuffed animals in Spain. In 50,000 square meters there are 1090 specimens, 405 of them threatened with extinction or directly extinct pic.twitter.com/e0DE1Ysaby — Enrique Rodríguez (@rodriguezcoello)
April 10, 2022
The operation carried out by the Nature Protection Team of the Civil Guard Command of Valencia began in November 2021, when the agents became aware of a possible private collection of specimens in Bétera.” Continuing with the investigations, the agents located a ship in that municipality of more than 50,000 square meters, which contained a house and 2 ships, finding inside 1,090 stuffed specimens. Of these specimens, 405 belonged to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES),” it was expanded. The agents will proceed to the analysis of all the documentation provided by the author to justify the possession of the pieces reviewed.
