Eyes in the dark: How you helped fight the slaughter of songbirds

When compassion takes flight, miracles happen, Protect the Wild supporters raise enough for the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) to buy a thermal drone to fight wildlife crime in the dark.

In less than 48 hours, YOU did it! Together with our amazing community, Protect the Wild has smashed the target for the Committee Against Bird Slaughter’s (CABS) thermal drone fundraiser. The goal was £4,839, but thanks to your incredible generosity, we’ve raised an astonishing £6,702.20!

That might sound like a piece of tech.
But it isn’t.

It’s a weapon against cruelty.
It’s a guardian in the night.
It’s the difference between life and death for thousands of tiny, exhausted songbirds who have already crossed oceans just to survive.

Protect the Wild’s “Save Songbirds” fundraiser is nearly there!

Every year, these fragile, fluttering migrants, their wings aching from journeys of thousands of miles, land, desperate for food, water, rest. They believe they’ve found safety.

But waiting for them is a lie.

They are lured by decoy calls, the songs of their own kind, twisted into traps. Then, as they approach, they are trapped, stuck, then crushed or stabbed. Their little bodies, lives full of movement and song, end in pain, panic, and silence.

Protect the Wild hold a female blackcap who had a traumatic brain injury and was taken for humane euthanasia

All for a dish, Ambelopoulia, that was banned across the EU back in 1974.
Fifty years ago, the law said enough.
And yet, it’s still happening. Still tolerated. Still profited from.

This is not tradition.
This is not culture.
This is wildlife crime.

It is greed, cowardice, and cruelty.
The trappers and organised criminal gangs are men too lazy to earn honestly, too feared by local authorities, who kill without conscience, hiding behind darkness and corruption.

Protect the Wild hold a dying Blackcap they managed to free from a mist net, but who had already been stabbed by criminal trappers.

But they are not invisible anymore.

Because CABS are out there, night after night, crawling through bushes and scaling vast mountain ranges, cutting nets, peeling limesticks from branches, and rescuing terrified songbirds from certain death.

They are the only line of defence between these wild, beautiful lives and the people who destroy them.
They are doing the job that governments and police refuse to do.

And now, thanks to you, they have eyes in the dark.
This thermal drone will expose the trappers hiding in the shadows.
It will help CABS track illegal operations, rescue more birds, and bring more criminals to justice.

CABS free songbirds from a mist net found during the night.

You made that happen.

But imagine what we could do next.

What if we raised enough for two drones?
Two teams. Twice the reach. Twice the criminals caught.
Twice the number of birds rescued from agony.

If you haven’t donated yet, please do it now.
Every pound counts. Every share saves lives. Every voice joins a chorus that says we will not look away.

Because this is about more than birds.
It’s about justice.
It’s about compassion.
It’s about saying no more to cruelty disguised as custom.

Protect the Wild works to free a female blackcap from a mist net during a CABS operation.

You’ve already proven what’s possible when people come together for what’s right.
So let’s keep going for CABS, who are out there fighting right now, for the birds they rescue.

Donate. Share. Speak out.

Together, we are not just funding a drone.
We are arming compassion.
We are combating wildlife crime.
And we are giving freedom, safety, and life back to the wild and to the songbirds who fly upon the wind.

Protect the Wild release a Blackcap from limesticks back to the wild during an operation with CABS. To help CABS continue this work, donate today.