Last week, the team of the Macedonian Ecological Society (MES) received a report that mass poisoning of dogs occurred on the territory of the village of Vitoliste in Prilep Mariovo and that the poison may still be there and pose a potential danger to humans and wildlife.

Given that Mariovo is extremely rich in biodiversity, poisoning events, even of domestic animals in the countryside can have huge repercussions on wildlife and therefore alarms have been sounded, they say from the Company.

"After receiving this information, the competent authorities were immediately notified and the coordination for conducting an investigation into this event and the safe removal of the dogs began. However, what was supposed to be a routine procedure soon became an emergency because we noticed that two griffon vultures equipped with GPS transmitters that MES constantly monitors within the BalkanDetox Life project are in the vicinity of Vitoliste and are close to the scattered poison. Bearing in mind that griffon vultures are social birds that fly almost constantly in flocks, we knew that the real number was much higher than two. "If these birds had reached the poisoned animals, we could have faced the complete extermination of the vultures from our country." say from MES.

"Fortunately, we came to an understanding with the local border police, who were notified of the catastrophe that could occur and immediately sent a team to the location where the griffon vultures landed in order to chase them away before they started eating from the bodies of the poisoned animals. "After half an hour of agonizing uncertainty, the first call came from the field teams that as many as 18 birds were scattered and the poisoned dogs were untouched," the Association said in a statement.

The next day, with the support of the Municipality of Prilep, which takes over the coordination, an inspection team from the Ministry of Interior went on the field, as well as a communal inspector, in order to conduct an investigation into the event and appropriate measures to clear the case. A field tour was also conducted and fortunately no poisoned wildlife was found. The event was reported to the public prosecutor and we hope for an appropriate investigation by the competent authorities, added the Association.

Illegal use of poison continues to be the biggest threat to the survival of vultures not only in Northern Macedonia but in the entire Balkan Peninsula. It is estimated that in the last 20 years in the Balkans about 2300 vultures have died, while in our country this practice has led to the complete extinction of black and bearded vultures and has brought the Egyptian and white-headed vulture to only a few nesting pairs. At the last count, only 24 griffon vultures were counted in Macedonia, which means that if they were poisoned by dogs in Vitoliste, their population would be functionally destroyed.