SHARE
COPY LINK

BIRDS

Swiss feather thief gets three years in jail

A Swiss hawk enthusiast was on Wednesday sentenced to three years behind bars for stealing more than 10,000 bird feathers worth an estimated $6 million from European museums.

Swiss feather thief gets three years in jail
Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images North America/AFP
A Basel court found the 45-year-old man, whose name was not given, guilty of aggravated theft and property damage between 2005 and 2012, and handed him a three-year prison sentence, the ATS news agency reported.
   
The court, which began hearing the case on Tuesday, also sentenced an accomplice to a 15-month suspended prison term.
   
The man would gain access to ornithology collections at various museums in countries including Switzerland, Germany and Austria, claiming he was doing scientific research, according to ATS.
   
He would then pluck feathers off exotic and valuable birds, stealing what were described as “very rare and precious objects, of inestimable scientific value”.
   
His victims included red kites and buzzards, a variety of eagle and the endangered Usambara eagle owl of Tanzania.
   
The man was charged with the theft of feathers from 127 different species over more than seven years.
   
According to state prosecutors, the stolen feathers were worth a combined 427,000 Swiss francs ($443,000, 390,000 euros), while the various museums suffered an estimated six million Swiss francs ($6 million, 5.4 million euros) in damages.
   
Ever since the man's collection of some 10,500 feathers was seized in 2012, he has been undergoing psychotherapy to try to understand what led him to commit the thefts, ATS said.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

ANIMALS

Swan Late: Mourning bird holds up German trains

A swan mourning the death of its companion on a German railway track held up 23 trains for almost an hour and had to be removed by firefighters using special equipment, police said.

Swan Late: Mourning bird holds up German trains
A swan sat on the tracks, mourning its companion. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/Bundespolizei/Bundespolizei

The two birds had strayed onto the track area of the high-speed line between Kassel and Göttingen in central Germany “during an excursion”, according to Kassel police.

One of the birds died, likely after getting caught in the overhead power cables, said the statement on the December 23rd incident, which was made public late on Monday.

Its companion then sat beside the body in mourning, resisting attempts by officials to lure it away and temporarily closing the line to traffic.

Firefighters with special equipment were later called in and managed to lift the dead swan and its surviving companion away from the area.

Twenty-three trains were delayed for about 50 minutes while the rescue operation took place, the police statement said.

The surviving swan was unharmed and later released onto the river Fulda, it
added.

According to Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, swans try to find a mate for life.

SHOW COMMENTS