Volunteers with the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) currently carrying out a protest to protect birds in Maroni on Tuesday reported they were attacked by a local poacher.

“We’ve just arrived at Zygi Police Station after one of our convoy was almost rammed off the road by one of Akas’ violent thugs,” Cabs said.

The group launched their Occupy Akas operation to occupy the trapping site on the hills of Maroni on Sunday, aiming to prevent poachers from illegally trapping songbirds and freeing those that get caught on limesticks or in nets.

According to Cabs, a poacher who they also referred to as Akas has been “wreaking havoc for years” in the area, illegally trapping and killing hundreds of birds a day during peak season, without being held accountable by authorities.

“Akas is the most prolific illegal hunter here in Cyprus, killing up to 500 birds a day during peak season,” Cabs said in a social media post showing them in front of Zygi police station.

“The police response was abysmal– no action. They simply did not want to know,” activist Chris Packham after they had first reported the incident at another police station where they got no response.

The group described Akas as violent and said that he was operating with his own “gang”, killing tens of thousands of birds each year in his fenced garden with huge nets.

“Although he is well known to Cabs and our teams have already presented extensive evidence on several occasions, these poachers have so far remained largely unpunished,” the group said.

As the authorities have done nothing, Cabs said they would occupy the trapping site themselves.

They said that soon after arriving at the scene on Monday in his SUV, Akas noticed their presence and verbally abused and threatened the group, openly admitting to trapping songbirds.

Cabs, livestreaming their project, recorded Akas saying that he “did not care about anything” but himself during the livestream.

The group also criticised the police for arriving so slowly that the poachers were able to calmly dismantle and hide their nets.

“By the time they arrived, everything had already been cleared away (…)”.