Yesterday, late in the evening, the information came that the birds were released. It would seem that the story with confiscated goldfinches ended well. If it were not for one thing ...
For those who have not seen my previous post, I will explain that 1500 goldfinches were confiscated by customs. The birds were confiscated from a Jordanian citizen who tried to take them to Jordan by presenting forged documents. But, since they became material evidence, the customs officers prohibited to open the boxes. The birds began to die. According to zoodefenders, about 1/3 of birds have died so far.
Later in the evening, a video appeared on Facebook, where people open their cages and release birds. Under the post - a lot of enthusiastic comments. But here's the problem ... the birds were weakened. As I already said, a third of them died because of the terrible conditions in which they found themselves. The rest, at best, were in a state of severe stress, at worst - were sick. You can see that not all the birds were able to fly away. Some of them almost immediately fell into the snow.
It is not by chance that the leading zoologist of one of the national parks called this “release” the massacre of birds. But the voices of those who tried to voice their concerns drowned out in the noise of enthusiastic comments.
Today they say that the decision was made by officials from the Ministry of Ecology. What a lack of professionalism and irresponsibility! You do not need to be an ornithologist to understand that the birds that were caught in different regions of the country and were greatly weakened, took time for rehabilitation. Unfortunately, the worst fears were justified.
Already today, volunteers found a significant number of dead birds where they were released.
From the inability to change anything, my hands fall. Our friends sent food there to scatter it and help those birds who survived. We ourselves are still ready to accept weakened goldfinches if such a need arises.
All photos in this post and video are from the web!