Millions of songbirds are illegally trapped and killed for food in Mediterranean countries each year, with Cyprus, Malta, and Italy having particularly high documented capture rates.
Limestick trapping causes extreme suffering. Birds adhering to lime sticks panic and struggle violently, exhausting themselves over hours. Their feathers are destroyed by the adhesive. Collected birds are typically strangled by hand. Mist net trapping, used in some regions, causes wing and leg injuries. Many trapped birds die before collection. The scale — millions annually in a single small region — represents an enormous volume of suffering for animals whose migratory journeys already demand extraordinary physical reserves.