Millions of migratory songbirds are trapped and killed annually across Mediterranean countries for food and tradition, causing significant individual welfare harm and contributing to population declines across European breeding ranges.
Songbird trapping causes welfare harm through the mechanism of capture — limestick and net trapping are indiscriminate and cause fear, exhaustion, and injury before death — and through the population-level welfare impacts on species that experience reduced breeding success from unsustainable offtake. Individual birds captured by limestick struggle for extended periods before being discovered, during which they experience acute fear and physical exhaustion. The welfare case against songbird trapping is independent of but reinforced by the conservation case: both arguments point toward the same policy goal of effective enforcement of existing prohibitions and stronger international cooperation on flyway protection.