Four arrested in Paphos over turtle-throwing video

The police on Tuesday announced that they have made four arrests after a video emerged of four men appearing to kick and throw a turtle.

They said they had received a complaint at around 1.30pm on Monday and that they attended the scene of the video, a beach near the Paphos district village of Chlorakas, shortly afterwards.

There, they said, investigations led them to determine the identities of the four men shown in the video. All four are employees of the Chlorakas village council.

All four were found alongside a dead turtle at their workplace, with the police having taken custody of the dead turtle so as to determine its cause of death, with a wider investigation into the matter ongoing.

Later on Tuesday, the Chlorakas village council expressed “regret” over the video, saying that “such practices are not consistent with the principles, values, and modus operandi of the village council”.

“As is standard practice followed by the Chlorakas village council in cases when dead animals are detected, workers went to the area with the aim of removing the turtle, which was believed dead,” it said.

It added that it will now await the completion of the police’s investigation.

Meanwhile, animal welfare commissioner Antonia Theodosiou described the incident as “unacceptable”, telling the Cyprus News Agency that even if the turtle had already been dead when it was found on the beach, “that is not the way to treat it”.

She said that “from time to time”, people tasked with removing dead turtles from beaches “cite the weight of the turtles or the lack of knowledge about their proper handling” as issues, but stressed that there are “relevant instructions and protocols from the fisheries department which must be strictly implemented”.

As such, she said there is an evident need to “train local authority staff” on how to handle turtles, adding that “such incidents undermine efforts to protect marine life and are incompatible with the respect we owe to protected species”.

She added that if a member of the public spots a live turtle, they must notify the fisheries department immediately.