On August 2, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. The Chashniki District Court has accepted for consideration a report on an administrative offense regarding the cruel treatment of cormorant chicks and has scheduled the first hearing for August 10, the court informed a BELTA correspondent. As Nikolay Bakurin, Chairman of the Lukomlsky Rural Council, told a BELTA correspondent, the administrative offense report was drawn up based on a check conducted by the Chashniki District Department of Internal Affairs against a resident of the Chashniki District. According to Nikolay Bakurin, the suspect is not yet 30 years old. Trying to explain his cruel act, the young man said that cormorants are harmful birds that exterminate fish, which is why he decided to kill the chicks. The man cut off the beaks, as he thought, of already dead birds. As previously reported, in mid-June, ornithologists discovered dozens of cormorant chicks with cut-off beaks on an island in Lake Lukomskoye in the Chashniki District. The Chashniki District Department of Internal Affairs conducted a check on this fact. By decision of the district commission for providing assistance to wild animals in distress, the district inspectorate, together with employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and members of the Belarusian Society of Hunters and Fishermen, captured the injured birds, euthanized them, and disposed of them. Euthanasia became the only way for 28 birds with the upper part of their beaks cut off not to die a torturous death by starvation. The cormorant is included in the list of wild animals of undesirable species, and hunting them is permitted. However, cruel treatment of any birds is unacceptable and punishable by law. According to the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Administrative Offenses, cruel treatment of animals, resulting in their death or injury, entails a fine of 10 to 30 base units (currently, one base unit is Br100 thousand) or administrative arrest.

BELTA