More than 100 vultures have been killed in Bulgaria in less than a decade, with none of the cases resulting in a conviction, conservation groups said following protests in Sofia and Plovdiv over the latest poisoning of protected birds.
The protests were organized after eight vultures died in a poisoning incident in the Central Balkan National Park. The victims included five black vultures, two griffon vultures and the only bearded vulture known to be living freely in the wild in Bulgaria.
Representatives of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds and other conservation organizations are calling for stricter enforcement of existing regulations, tougher penalties for crimes against protected species and the criminalization of the distribution of poisoned baits.
Stoyan Nikolov of the Bulgarian Biodiversity Protection Association said the legal classification of crimes involving species protected under the Biodiversity Act should be strengthened. “We want to raise the category of crimes related to the killing of species protected by the Biodiversity Act, as the currently envisaged penalties do not allow the police to apply all investigative tools.”
According to Nikolov, a higher classification would give law enforcement access to additional investigative methods and make it easier to identify those responsible for the deaths.
