Give Birds a Chance!
Taught by Domagoj Lojen (Croatia), illustrated by Courtney and Lily (USA)
Welcome everybody to our House of Knowledge!
I've decided to present you a lesson about birds killing in Croatia, especially in the region of Slavonia where we live.
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The Environmental Protection Inspection in our town Slavonski Brod, have carried out recently the confiscation of following types of protected birds: goldfinch (9), aberdevine siskin (6) and and some other types of birds, in total 19 various spieces of birds.
Hunting, trading, breeding, reproduction and keeping of protected types of birds is strongly forbbiden in Croatia according to the Environmental Protection Law. High penalty are assigned to those who break that law - €1000 - €10 000.
But that penalties don't stop the awful bird hunting. People kill them and sell them to the countries where their meat is served in restaurants as an expensive and delicious meal.
We live in Eastern Croatia. Many times we can watch on TV and read in newspapers about illegal hunting, trade, and transport of protected and killed birds in our area.
Even some Croatian citizens possessed in captivity protected species of birds - goldfinches and European greenfinches.
Can you imagine this: there were once 800 killed birds that all were on the protected species list.
The birds had been killed for the gastronomy market.
Croatia is a continental, mountainous and Mediterranean country. It is rich in various species of birds. Many of these species are very rare and endangered in Europe. The coastal area is especially interesting for bird scientists because it is partially west-European birds migration corridor. Intensive migrations of birds take place in the spring and in the autumn.
A large number of birds find the Adriatic coast as an important wintering area.
In Slavonia, illegal bird hunting is a crime. Here are some protected spieces of birds that some criminals killed and tried to sell them for much money.
Bird |
Number of killed birds |
Skylark (Allauda arvensis) |
847 |
Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava) |
1 |
Motacilla alba (White Wagtail) |
5 |
Goldfinch ((Carduelis carduelis) |
1 |
Starling (Sturnus vulgaris vulgaris) |
1 |
Corn Crake (Crex crex) |
1 |
Quail (Coturnix coturnix) |
8 |
Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) |
1 |
Too many! For just one time! Thousands and thousand of all kinds of birds have been killed for trade these years. They will not sing and bild nests any more.They will not teach their children to fly!
What can we do to save the birds and protect them from evil people?
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