Illegal and legal trapping of wild songbirds for food and captivity in Mediterranean countries causes significant welfare harm to millions of birds annually.
The illegal trapping of songbirds in Mediterranean countries is both a conservation crisis and a welfare issue of significant scale. Individual birds caught on limesticks or in mist nets experience acute fear and physical injury as they attempt to escape. The stress of capture and handling causes physiological trauma, and birds that are not immediately killed may be kept in cramped conditions before use. Because many trapped species are migratory, the welfare harm extends to disrupting migration itself — the deaths of millions of birds during the brief Mediterranean crossing period represents population-level welfare harm to species whose entire lifecycle is disrupted. The practice continues despite legal prohibition because of cultural tradition, weak enforcement, and limited consequences for poachers.