The police are investigating the case of animal cruelty towards cormorants in the Chashniki district

June 20, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The police are conducting a check on the fact of cruel treatment of cormorants in the Chashniki district on Lake Lukoml, the head of the Chashniki District Department of Internal Affairs, Mikhail Dyadichkin, told a BELTA correspondent. The District Department of Internal Affairs received a statement from the local village council that dozens of cormorant chicks with cut beaks were found in a colony of cormorants and herons on Lake Lukoml. This became the basis for the check. Initial investigative actions include identifying the circle of persons who may be involved in this incident. Currently, hunters and fishermen are being interviewed, and nearby settlements and fish farming enterprises are being checked, the head of the District Department of Internal Affairs explained. He did not rule out that inquiries regarding this fact would also be sent to neighboring fish farms. Cormorants feed on fish and cause significant damage to fisheries. In this regard, the bird is classified as an undesirable species. The head of the District Department of Internal Affairs did not rule out that some fish farms or private tenants might accept parts of cormorant carcasses as proof of their shooting, and based on this, pay rewards to hunters. Ten days are allocated for the check, after which the materials will be transferred to the Investigative Committee for legal assessment. In accordance with the legislation, cruel treatment of animals entails administrative responsibility - punishment in the form of a fine. According to police officers, currently, there are no more than two dozen chicks with cut beaks on the island. "The number of affected birds previously reported is greatly exaggerated," believes the head of the District Department of Internal Affairs. The head of the Chashniki District Inspectorate of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, Yuri Chernousov, holds the same opinion. The head of the district inspectorate, along with representatives of the village council and police officers, took part in the survey of the colony where the birds were affected. In a conversation with a BELTA correspondent, he said that it is very difficult to name the exact number of injured chicks: they have not yet taken to the wing, but they can already fly up to tall trees or jump into the water and swim away, so all calculations are very conditional. However, he is also convinced that there are no grounds to talk about hundreds of affected birds. The interlocutor does not venture to speculate who benefited from the destruction of the chicks. PMK-26 is operating in the district, which is engaged in breeding pond fish. However, the enterprise has the right to shoot these birds in accordance with the law only on the territory of the ponds, with its own employees who have a hunting permit. According to unofficial data, PMK-26 shot birds only in May. Then 20 cormorants were destroyed. As Yuri Chernousov reported, today the district commission for helping wild animals decided to capture the injured chicks and euthanize them. For now, their parents are feeding them, but the chicks are about to start eating on their own. "This is the only way to prevent them from dying a painful death from starvation," the interlocutor is convinced. Ecologists, a veterinarian, and employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations will be involved in the operation. Ornithologists, who arrived on the island to study a mixed colony of birds: great egret, grey heron, and cormorants, were the first to learn about the cormorants with cut beaks. According to their assumption, the chicks' beaks were cut off on the night of June 16. -0-