JPJ's Weblog

I have been painting, it is that time of the year. First I painted a new cupboard that has nearly been completed in the utility room. The cupboard is designed to keep everything, bins, wellies, shoes, salt for the water softener – all safe from thieving Labradors!!! Then over the last two weekends I have been painting the inside of the clinic. I have to admit it is a holding job because the walls in there are very damp and what we really need to do is take out all the kitchen units, strip off the plaster board and start again. But for the time being, we have a ton of things to finish before opening again in February and so it will have to wait a bit. A good coat of oil based paint will do the trick temporarily I hope. So it’s starting to look pretty good, John has done all the second, third and fourth coats!!! It should be finished by tomorrow. And the hospital is just about done so we had a major clear up in there today, it is looking stunning. Some staining of wood tomorrow and a couple of other things and it will be a done deal.

Adam Crisford asked me to put this up, go to his website,
he is selling it and some of the funds will go to the hospital

Owl Evenings have been going well and Chris Sperrin from the Hawk and Owl Trust came up and did an Owl Prowl for our members. It was the day of all the wind, but thankfully the wind dropped in the evening and the event went well. I hope that we can do a few more, although it will be hard to be as good as Chris at mimicking owl calls – he is quite brilliant at it!!! Still there is always a phone apt that is pretty good!!!

We had a corporate Christmas Do on Friday, which was seamless, and they definitely got value for money. We started at 2.30 pm and finally finished up at nearly 10.00pm. My staff are wonderful, they worked really hard, including serving and clearing up afterwards, we did have fun though!!! Then on Sat we had the second last Owl Evening, boy we were lucky with the weather. The wind was very strong and made the guided tours a little tricky, but it kindly dropped in time for us to fly the owls outside and then the rain did not start until people were gone!

The new garage is just about finished, it is so nice to see the trailer, land Rover and new Range Rover sitting comfortably under cover. The van is also under cover outside the clinic.

Briza

We are down to just a few birds flying and all the owls will be grounded over Christmas. Then in the New Year we start again. We are keeping a couple of Harris Hawks going for staff that want to hunt them over Christmas and we are flying the two new eagles up until Christmas Eve, also the new Striated Caracara who is lovely.

Sorrel was NOT pregnant, which was very disappointing, we will try once more and then I guess the local sheep dog will probably succeed!!

Question for written answer E-012751/2013 to the Commission Rule 117 Andrea Zanoni (ALDE)

Subject: Continuing poaching of migratory birds in Cyprus, in breach of the Birds Directive 2009/147/EC, and violence against members of CABS

In Cyprus, there is widespread poaching of migratory birds flying across the island, with a thriving illegal market. This is due, in particular, to the existence of a local traditional dish called ambelopoulia, made up of small wild birds that are skinned and grilled whole, or pickled in vinegar. This dish has been illegal on the island since the 1970s, but sadly, is still widespread. Twice a year, therefore, CABS (Committee Against Bird Slaughter) organises an anti-poaching camp aimed at removing the tools used by local residents to capture live birds, such as mistletoe sticks, clap nets and electronic decoy devices. If these tools are on private property, the volunteers report the matter to the local police, who then seize the tools and start criminal proceedings against those responsible. The volunteer activists also seek out dishes based on these birds, which are illegally sold in restaurants, grocery stores, butcher shops, etc.

As reported by the CABS volunteers, cooperation with the local authorities responsible in particular the APS Anti-Poaching Squad, Game Fund guards and authorities on the British SBA military base was particularly successful in 2011 and 2012 and paid off with an increasing number of poachers being reported. However, the 2013 anti-poaching camp was characterised by a U-turn by the Cypriot authorities, who have withdrawn their support and obstructed the volunteers, despite the latter reporting the dangerous and isolated situation they were in and despite repeated acts of violence against them. The volunteers, in fact, have had the tyres of a car parked in front of the entrance to the Cape Greko National Park slashed, have been repeatedly chased by cars, threatened, were once beaten up and bludgeoned and, last but not least, robbed of a camera and a mobile phone.

Can the Commission therefore answer the following questions:
1. What measures does it intend to take to ensure compliance with the Birds Directive in Cyprus and react to the infringements currently taking place?
2. Does it not agree that the time is ripe to commence infringement proceedings in relation to this matter?
3. Will it contact the Cypriot authorities to discover why have changed their attitude, when previously they had given their maximum cooperation to the CABS volunteers?

This will be interesting to watch for the answer, its about time the EU put its money where its mouth is.