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CRIME

Bird-killer rips heads off homing pigeons

An unknown perpetrator broke into a bird-breeding station over the weekend in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein and beheaded 17 homing pigeons.

Published: 19 December 2011 11:16 CET
Bird-killer rips heads off homing pigeons
Photo: DPA

The incident occurred in the rural hamlet of Malente, where a 53-year-old bird breeder discovered several doors broken and the animal carcasses scattered everywhere.

Police said they believe that the perpetrator had a good local knowledge because the birds’ living space was not visible from the street.

Police believe the culprit broke into the space Friday night or early Saturday morning. The last time the breeder had fed his animals was Friday.

The police have asked for the public’s help and believe someone may have eyewitness evidence.

The pigeon killings are the latest in a series of grisly animal abuse cases that have angered many Germans.

In October a cockatiel was rescued after someone doused it with beer and stuffed it into a ticket machine.

Earlier this month police near Düsseldorf found five dogs skinned and their stomachs cut open before being dumped into a river.

Investigators are still searching for evidence.

The Local/DPA/mdm

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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