Maxi-seizure of exotic species at the port of Pozzallo: 300 tortoises and 77 parrots

At the port of Pozzallo, in Sicily, a maxi-seizure of exotic species took place: as part of the fight against the increasingly widespread phenomenon of the abusive trade of protected animals, which damages the entire ecosystem and the legal market, the Financial Police and the officials of the Customs and Monopolies Agency intercepted a car that was illicitly transporting 300 tortoises and 77 parrots.

The driver of the car was a Maltese citizen, who was stopped before he could embark the animals on a catamaran headed towards the Mediterranean island.

The man was reported to the Ragusa Prosecutor's Office for keeping animals in conditions incompatible with their nature and producing serious suffering. The individual would also have violated the law that gives application in Italy to the Washington Convention, which protects wild fauna and flora from the risk of extinction due to trade. Almost all member states of the United Nations are parties to the international treaty, signed in 1973.

Tortoises and parrots were in fact crammed into a car without suitable space to transport them. The veterinary doctors of the Ragusa provincial health authority, who intervened on site, also ascertained that the car lacked adequate thermoregulation to safeguard the health conditions of the specimens.

The CITES operational team of the Gdf of Catania-Fontanarossa, a specialized unit that deals with the preservation of protected species, has ascertained that 76 of the 377 animals seized belong to species protected by the Washington Convention: Scarlet Macaw, Ara chloropterus, Ara ararauna, Cacatua roseicapilla and Cacatua alba. It was therefore one of the most significant seizures of animals protected by the Convention.