Spain probes private taxidermy museum with 1,000 animals

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s Civil Guard says it is investigating a businessman in the eastern Valencia region who owned a private taxidermy collection with more than 1,000 stuffed animals, including just over 400 from protected species and at least one specimen of a North African oryx, already extinct. The collection would fetch 29 million euros ($31.5 million) on the black market and its owner could be charged with trafficking and other crimes against the environment, the Civil Guard said. The crackdown was the largest seizure of protected stuffed specimens in Spain and one of the largest in Europe.