Taxidermied Animals

On April 10, 2022, Spain seized 1,000 taxidermied animals, including those even thought to be near-extinct. This was thought to be one of the largest hauls ever conducted.

When Spain’s Civil Guard seized the taxidermied animals, they estimated that the entire collection would amount to nearly 29 million euros, 42,840,298.60 Singapore dollars, showing just how much people will pay for a form of animal abuse. In today’s society, it is due to activities such as this poaching, breed manipulation, culling, etc, that is why animal abuse is happening. If society can learn to treat animals the way they would wish to be treated, not only will they be given the life they deserve, but the unnecessary violence in our world will be decreased by tenfold. This private collection was found in a shed in Betera, near Valencia in eastern Spain.

After closely examining this collection, they found 1,090 taxidermied animals in total. They even discovered that 405 of those animals were classified as protected, endangered, or extinct, including the scimitar-horned oynx, the Bengal tiger, cheetahs, lynxes, polar bears, white rhinos, and even 198 elephant tusks. To add to the significance of this haul, Spain’s Civil Guard was even able to confirm that this was no small-scale operation: this is the "largest haul of nationally-protected taxidermied animals and one of the largest in Europe."

Outraged by this blatant animal abuse, just for human entertainment and leisure, Spain is investigating who is the owner of this collection. As soon as they are found, they will be charged with smuggling and environmental crimes.