The Chashniki court will begin hearing the cormorant case on August 10

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, a BELTA correspondent was informed at the court. As Nikolai Bakurin, chairman of the Lukomlsky rural council, told a BELTA correspondent, the report on the administrative offense was drawn up based on an inspection conducted by the Chashniki District Department of Internal Affairs against a resident of the Chashniki District. According to Nikolai 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 upper mandibles, as he thought, of already dead birds. As previously reported, dozens of cormorant chicks with cut-off upper mandibles were discovered by ornithologists in mid-June on an island in Lake Lukomskoye in the Chashniki District. The Chashniki District Department of Internal Affairs conducted an inspection regarding 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 to prevent 28 birds with the upper part of their beaks cut off from dying a painful 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 that results in their death or injury entails a fine of 10 to 30 base units (currently, one base unit is Br100,000) or administrative arrest.