The mayor of a village in Poland is accused of poaching a bison, which is a protected species, and seeking to sell its head as a trophy, then giving false statements in an attempt to cover up the crime.
The 22-year-old man, named only as Remigiusz C. under Polish law, allegedly shot the animal then cut off its head. But, after reportedly being unable to find a buyer, he informed the police about the carcass in the forest and claimed to have discovered it by chance.
The bison was well known among locals, who affectionately nicknamed it “Pyrek” (Spud) because it ate potatoes from the fields of farms in the area, reports Gazeta Wyborcza. Prosecutors have this week filed an indictment against the mayor, who could face up to five years in prison if found guilty.
Sołtys kłusownik zabił żubra, odciął mu łeb i ogon. Handlował trofeami #wyborczahttps://t.co/03fQJi17II
— Gazeta Wyborcza.pl (@gazeta_wyborcza) March 18, 2021
Before he became the main suspect, Remigiusz C., mayor of Warcimino in the Pomerania Province, openly commented on the case in the media. He even showed the location of the carcass to a TV reporter and claimed he was devastated when he found it.
“For me, a nature-loving person, the view was horrible,” he told TVN24, adding that the punishment for those responsible “should not be light”.
The mayor is said to have changed his version of events several times during the investigation. At first he claimed to have found the carcass by chance. In an interview with Głos Pomorska, he said that it happened while he and a friend were in the forest looking for deer antlers.
“But that is unrealistic as it happened in November, while deer shed their antlers in March,” the prosecutor leading this case, Marzena Baluk, told Gazeta Wyborcza.
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The mayor then reportedly admitted that he had actually shot at the animal, but claimed he believed it to have been a wild boar he was hunting. However, Remigiusz C. had himself told TVN that “you can’t confuse a deer with a bison”, because the latter are large animals weighing over 600 kilos.
“Cases of bison poaching are reported almost every year in Poland [and] most often the hunters claim that the killing was unintentional or that they confused the bison with another animal,” Rafał Kowalczyk, director of the Mammal Research Institute at the Polish Academy of Sciences, told Notes from Poland.
According to media reports, Remigiusz C. allegedly killed the animal with two shots from close range and cut its head off in order to sell it as a trophy. But, after being unable to find a buyer, he brought the head back to the forest, put it next to the carcass and informed the police.
Gazeta Wyborcza reports that, when the case started to draw media attention, Remigiusz C. sold the gun he had used to kill the animal. Among the charges he is now facing is one of illegally possessing a firearm.
In total, eight people have heard charges in this case. Among them is 30-year-old Przemysław P., who allegedly helped to transport the bison’s head, which weighed around 50 kilos, and later hindered the investigation. Others are accused of poaching, purchasing dead animals from poachers and gun trafficking.
For the poachers to be sentenced to five years in prison, prosecutors need to prove that the killing was intentional and it impacted on the state of preservation of the protected species, says Kowalczyk.
“As it is difficult to unambiguously prove that, poachers often avoid prison sentences, or the sentences are very low,” he notes. “Last year a poacher from Łobez in the Pomerania region was sentenced to a month in prison, a fine and community service.”
The European bison was hunted to extinction in Poland in the early 20th century. However, it has been successfully reintroduced in the wild in recent decades and is now a protected species – as well as being an iconic symbol of Polish nature.
The animals have, however, become prized among some hunters. A report by Greenpeace in 2017 showed that Polish and international hunters pay up to 12,000 zloty (€2,600) for organised hunts of bison, and up to 36,000 zloty for a stuffed trophy.
Such hunts are able to take place legally, with the General Directorate for Environmental Protection (GDOŚ), a state body, giving permission for a certain number of bison to be culled each year. Forest managers say it is necessary to eliminate animals that are ill, injured or aggressive, reports TOK FM.
Kowalczyk points out that there is an even bigger problem with wolf poaching, with dozens of cases taking place every year and probably many others never being reported.
Main image credit: Mariusz Cieszewski/Polska.pl (under CC BY-NC 2.0)
Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy, Duży Format, Midrasz and Kultura Liberalna
