On August 22, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The decision of the Chashniki District Court to impose a fine and recover environmental damage for the cruel treatment of cormorant chicks, totaling over Br23 million, has entered into legal force, the Chashniki District Court informed BELTA correspondent. The court's decision was announced on August 10, and the citizen had until August 20 to appeal it, but did not exercise this right. The decision has not been appealed or protested and thus enters into legal force. Based on Article 15.45 of the Code of the Republic of Belarus on Administrative Offences - cruel treatment of animals, the Chashniki District Court decided to impose an administrative penalty on a resident of the district born in 1982 in the amount of 25 base units, which amounts to Br2.5 million, and to recover Br20,760,000 in damages to the environment for the benefit of the state. As previously reported, the man is a fisherman of the local PMK-26. He did not provide clear explanations for his cruel act at the court hearing, only explaining that he had heard about the harm cormorants cause by eating large quantities of fish. According to him, he twisted the heads of the chicks and then cut off the upper part of their beaks. In mid-June, dozens of cormorant chicks with cut-off upper beaks were discovered by ornithologists on Lake Lukomskoye in the Chashniki district. The Chashniki District Department of Internal Affairs conducted an investigation into this fact. By decision of the district commission for rendering 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 was the only way to prevent 28 birds with cut-off upper beaks from dying a painful death from starvation.