Tigers, elephants, polar bears: more than 1,000 stuffed animals, almost half of which are from protected or extinct species, were seized in Spain in an investigation for smuggling, the Civil Guard announced on Sunday.
It is "the largest discovery of stuffed animals protected at national level and one of the largest in Europe", according to a statement from the Civil Guard.
Its agents discovered a private collection of 1,090 stuffed animals estimated at nearly 29 million euros in a shed in BĂ©tera, near Valencia, in eastern Spain.
Police in #Spain seized over 1,000 stuffed endangered #animals.
Heart breaking💔💔
pic.twitter.com/6Y4GDNhbwm
— Auron (@auron83591234) April 10, 2022
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Hundreds of protected species
Among these pieces, 405 come from protected species, some of which are extinct such as the oryx dammah, or threatened with extinction such as the Bengal tiger and the addax, as well as cheetahs, lynxes, polar bears, rhinos whites, a crocodile, an elephant and 198 pachyderm tusks in particular.
These animals belong to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
The owner of this collection is under investigation for smuggling and several environmental crimes.
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Spain
Animals
Threatened species