Magnificent endangered eagles are doped and put to work, posing with tourists for holiday snaps.
The cruel footage was recorded in Khunzakh, Dagestan, southern Russia, where poaching gangs drug the giant birds of prey so they can be manhandled for holidaymakers.
A pair of visitors are seen posing in front of an awe-inspiring backdrop of mountains while the massive eagles perch on their shoulders, looking unnaturally calm.
Local media reported that the footage caused outrage when it appeared on Russian social media.
Two men, named as 37-year-old Timur N. and Artur Yu, 26, have since been seized by police.
Tourist guides in the region first raised the alarm, saying the birds had been pumped full of drugs so visitors could pose with them without fear of being injured.
During raids, police reportedly seized a number of birds, including an Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca), listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
It was once revered as a “sacred bird” and widely referred to as the “cross-bearing eagle” because of the shape of the white spots on its wings.
It was supposed to have mystical powers, such as turning back bad weather, and as a result, the monarchy of Austria-Hungary adopted it as its heraldic animal.
But the reverence did not save it from persecution and hunting, and loss of habitat, including the felling of the old trees that it likes to nest in on the edge of farmland, and the use of poisoned meat to kill wolves has devastated its numbers.
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Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
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