Regulation of carbofuran and its use to poison wildlife in the European Union and the rest of Europe - Carbofuran and Wildlife Poisoning: Global Perspectives and Forensic Approaches - page 167

then die quickly after they eat them. Locals from the Island of Krk also practice deliberate second-
ary poisoning by collecting poisoned blackbirds and then putting them out as poison bait for foxes.
Bird species may also be poisoned by the improper use of rodenticides. Locals in Opatija, near
Rijeka, for example, suggest they have noticed a signifi cant decrease in the local sparrow population.
House sparrows ( Passer domesticus ) readily eat wheat laced with rodenticide (such as that shown
in Figure 5.18). For intentional poisoning, OP/CBs remain the poisons of choice however, since, as
mentioned in Section 5.7.3, people can see their effects immediately/rapidly, they are inexpensive/
easy to buy and no control is exerted on their use.
Agricultural product misuse also occurs when there is a lack of expertise available to advise on
correct practice, and to provide an inspection service to control approved use and pesticide sale. In
remote areas such as the islands in Croatia, but also in southern Croatia, certain laws are perhaps
not as strictly upheld/enforced as they are in other areas. For example, on the Island of Rab, offi cials
demanded that an 'educated' individual should be employed in the shop selling agricultural chemi-
cals, only after the griffon vulture poisoning incident of 2004.
Companion animals left behind by tourists are also poisoned. A common practice is unfor-
tunately for people to abandon their pets before going on summer or winter ski holidays. There
are only a few dog kennels, and many people consider these to be too expensive (i.e., around 7
EUR per day). There are laws against abandoning pets, but these are not enforced. Hence, after
the summer, or in spring, numerous dogs and cats are abandoned and begin to beg for food, and
many locals consider them a disturbance. Since animal shelters are in the hands of volunteers,
and these often lack resources and space, many strays are poisoned, sometimes even by local people
who simply dislike animals.
5.7.5 Nature protection and analytical capacity in Croatia
In Croatia, there are no governmental or NGO bodies that deal with wildlife incidents involving
poisoning, whether this is with pesticides or anything else. Consequently, poisoning incidents often
go unreported. A small proportion is picked up by newspapers, and some are investigated by nature
protection inspectors (countryside rangers) or veterinarians, but these tend to result in private reports
which are not divulged to a wider public/scientifi c audience. Numerous birds have been brought to
the Recovery Centre (where the author worked) with clear symptoms of OP/CB poisoning. After
examination, veterinarians usually confi rm poisoning, ordinarily through the analysis of crop and
stomach contents and/or tissue samples (e.g., liver and kidneys). However, signs of OP/CB poison-
ing, as confi rmed by veterinarians, are often not considered important. The police and the Ministry
of Culture and its Department for Nature Protection do not tend to take such incidents very seriously,
and appear only to do so when the popular media get involved. Hence, although many wildlife poi-
soning incidents are noted/reported by local veterinarians, offi cially, illegal poisoning is not really
recognised as a signifi cant problem in wildlife management at all.
There exist two forensic laboratories in Croatia. One is private and the other is a police facility.
There are also laboratories within some private veterinary practices, but these lack the necessary
equipment to investigate suspected poisoning, i.e., GC/MS facilities. The Veterinary University of
Zagreb has GC/MS and HPLC facilities, and could also perform histo-pathological analyses, but
currently, there is no willingness to pay for wildlife necropsy in suspected poisoning cases. The
private laboratory, which often focused on the investigation of incidents of wildlife poisoning
(and where the griffon vultures from the Island of Rab were analysed), closed in 2009 due to a
lack of funding for postmortem examination and tissue analyses. However, another private facility
has recently been opened by the same individuals that managed the previous centre. The Centre
for Forensic Research 'Ivan Vucetic', is the offi cial police laboratory, and has a greater emphasis
towards analysing human samples, for human forensic cases. Despite the fact that these facilities