US$32 million worth of stuffed dead animals seized in one of the largest hauls of its kind

More than 1,000 taxidermied animals, including hundreds of endangered or extinct species, were seized in Spain on Sunday in one of the largest hauls of its kind.

The Civil Guard said the private collection, estimated to be worth nearly 29 million euros (US$32 million), was discovered in a shed in Betera, near Valencia in eastern Spain.

Among the 1,090 animals seized, 405 are classified as protected, endangered or extinct, including the scimitar-horned oryx once found in parts of Africa. A stuffed Bengal tiger, considered near extinction, was also found, along with cheetahs, lynxes, polar bears, white rhinos and 198 elephant tusks.

The Civil Guard said on Sunday it was the country’s “largest haul of nationally-protected taxidermied animals and one of the largest in Europe”.

Investigating agents found the stuffed animals in two warehouses extending over 50,000 square meters on the outskirts of Bétera, a small town north of the eastern coastal city of Valencia.

Of the 1,090 stuffed animals found, 405 belonged to specimens protected by the CITES convention on wildlife protection.

They included the scimitar oryx, also known as the Sahara oryx, which the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, declared extinct in the wild in 2000, and at least two more species nearly extinct: the addax, or white antelope, originally from the Sahara desert and the Bengal tiger.