Râșcani poaching: Killing Red Book birds caused over 65,000 lei in environmental damage
The investigation into the poaching incident in Râșcani, where five birds listed in the Red Book were killed, has determined that environmental damage exceeding 65,000 lei was caused. Law enforcement established that four individuals were present in the area on the day the offense was committed, but they have not yet been identified.
These statements were made by the head of the Environmental Protection Inspectorate (IPM), Dorin Poverjuc, on September 18, during public consultations in Parliament regarding amendments to the Law on Hunting and the Protection of Game Reserves.
Three weapons seized, four suspects
Representatives of the Environmental Protection Inspectorate (IPM) state that they intervened at the scene immediately, alongside police officers. Authorities currently lack information regarding the circumstances surrounding the killing of the four fallow deer.
However, IPM head Dorin Poverjuc said several individuals were in the area that day and that authorities had already seized weapons for ballistic analysis.
"Honestly, the exact fate of the four fallow deer is unknown; they were likely handed over to ANSA as evidence for the case file. We have submitted a request to the Prosecutor's Office and the Police Inspectorate to initiate criminal proceedings under Article 233 of the Criminal Code—illegal hunting. We know from our cooperation with the police that three weapons have been seized for ballistic analysis. It is believed that four individuals were in the area on the day the stork's GPS signal stopped transmitting," stated Dorin Poverjuc.
The official added that specialists found a 3-millimeter shotgun pellet at the scene, which will serve as evidence during the forensic examination.
Forensic analysis of the black stork recovered from the site confirms that the bird was shot directly in the head. Silvia Ursul, Vice-President of the Society for the Protection of Birds, said the evidence has already been handed over to law enforcement to be included in the criminal case file.
"Specialists determined that the birds died from intracranial trauma. They were struck by two pellets in the skull—which entered and exited, causing hemorrhaging—and both wings were fractured upon impact. Only one pellet, measuring 3 millimeters, was found remaining in the body, lodged in the tibia of the right leg. It remains unclear what happened to the four spoonbill carcasses left at the site, as they were not collected by us," stated Silvia Ursul.
Investigations into the case are ongoing, and environmental organizations are insisting that new legislative amendments prevent individuals who cannot distinguish between protected species and those permitted for hunting from gaining access to hunting activities.
On September 17, the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Moldova announced that five protected birds were shot in a single day at a lake in the north of the country. The incident came to light when ornithologists tracked a young black stork via GPS, according to the Society for the Protection of Birds and Nature (SPPN) of the Republic of Moldova.
The black stork, named Lembe, was only three and a half months old and was on its first migration to Africa. It had already crossed Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, and the GPS transmitter attached to its body allowed ornithologists to track every stage of its journey.
According to the SPPN, the signal suddenly stopped on the evening of September 6 in northern Moldova, near the village of Pârjota in the Râșcani district.
"When we arrived at the coordinates transmitted by the device, Lembe was dead on the shore of a lake near Pârjota village. But what we found there was far worse than the death of a single bird: four spoonbills—another endangered species listed in the Red Book of the Republic of Moldova—lay dead in the water and on the shore," stated a message published on the Facebook page of the Society for the Protection of Birds and Nature.
A shotgun shell was found near the stork, and the birds showed signs of having been shot, according to the same source.
The authorities have taken the case into their own hands and launched a criminal investigation to identify the perpetrators and clarify the circumstances of the poaching incident.
