77 parrots and 300 tortoises seized at the port of Pozzallo

At the port of Pozzallo, in Sicily, a major seizure of exotic species took place: as part of the fight against the increasingly widespread illegal trade in protected animals, which damages the entire ecosystem and the legal market, the Guardia di Finanza and officials from the Customs and Monopolies Agency intercepted a car illegally transporting 300 tortoises and 77 parrots.

A Maltese national was driving the car; he was stopped before he could load the animals onto a catamaran bound for the Mediterranean island.

The man has been reported to the Ragusa Public Prosecutor’s Office for keeping animals in conditions incompatible with their nature and causing them severe suffering. The man is also alleged to have breached the law implementing the Washington Convention in Italia, which protects wild fauna and flora from the risk of extinction caused by trade. Almost all United Nations member states are signatories to this international treaty, which was signed in 1973.

Tortoises and parrots were, in fact, crammed into a vehicle that lacked the appropriate space to transport them. Veterinarians from the Ragusa Provincial Health Authority, who attended the scene, also established that the car lacked adequate temperature control to safeguard the animals’ health.

The CITES task force of the Guardia di Finanza in Catania-Fontanarossa – a specialist unit responsible for the conservation of protected species – has established that as many as 76 of the 377 animals seized belong to species protected under the Washington Convention: Ara macao, Ara chloropterus, Ara ararauna, Cacatua roseicapilla and Cacatua alba. This was therefore one of the most significant seizures of animals protected under the Convention.