The news about migrant birds poisoned in Kharkiv oblast has quickly spread over Ukraine, but it did not cause any broad response. Have we suddenly become indifferent and heartless en masse? It does not look like it.
Is it true that only the things shown on TV cause public concern? Television prefers to show political dramas rather than news about environmental disasters and, most importantly, their prevention. Remarkably, none of our politicians paid any special attention to this event, whereas the issue is such that the environmental prosecutor’s office should be looking into it. Ukraine does not have this law-enforcement body as yet. And nobody knows when it will appear, given this poor treatment of the environment. On their way home from the Central African countries geese travel 7,000-8,000 kilometers and expect to come and be safe at home. How do we meet them?
Hundreds of geese, swans, swallows, and other birds are now returning to Europe, and Ukraine in particular. Not surprisingly, April 1 marks the International Migratory Bird Day. So our main task today is to take care of them, rather than harm and endanger them. Hunting is one of the greatest threats that the birds may face during their migration. But facts speak of something else.
Last week 1,300 geese died near the Krasnopavlivka water reservoir in Kharkiv oblast. The guilty have yet to be identified. Vets say that the reason for this was chemically-treated corn on one of the fields. For some reason nobody predicted that, apart from rodents, other animals may eat the corn as well: hares, crows, rooks, and wild geese, in particular.
“The situation is quite ambiguous. On the one hand, it is reported that this corn was found in the crops of most of the birds. Theoretically, one can presume that nobody intended to kill 1,300 geese but just scattered the corn in order to protect the fields with winter wheat from rodents.
“But it was also reported that some of the geese had nooses that were used on them three days ago in Germany. So we presume that they could have been poisoned abroad,” said Oleksii Vasyliuk, deputy head of the National Ecological Center of Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, at the moment it is impossible to find out where these birds ate the corn. It is also a complicated question who should make the investigation, because there is no corresponding agency in Ukraine. In theory the question is about the violation of animals’ rights, and the State Ecological Inspectorate should deal with it, but since it cannot carry out investigations, the police could do this. According to the Ukrainian Law ‘On the Protection of Animals from Cruel Treatment,’ the law-enforcement agencies should undertake this case since they have the right to carry out investigations. Moreover, the case involves killing animals.”
The police’s main task is to find the guilty persons. And they would face a rather severe punishment, because they have violated the Law “On the Protection of Animals from Cruel Treatment,” and hence should face criminal responsibility.
“We have prepared an appeal to the State Ecological Inspectorate and the Ministry of Interior Affairs with a request to cope with the situation and find the guilty, because no mass cases of animals’ death like this has ever happened in our memory, so the situation in Kharkiv oblast is a rare case,” Vasyliuk continued. “As it is known, the geese were going to spend the night near the water reservoir, but it remains a secret where they ate the poisonous corn. We know that the birds were going from south to north, but it is unknown whether Kharkiv region was their final destination; they could be going to Sumy or Chernihiv regions from here.”
The ecologists’ greatest concern in this case is that the geese could eat only a part of the poisonous corn and that other animals may be poisoned. So it is hard to predict what the final outcome of this human negligence will be.
COMMENTARY
Oleksii VASYLIUK, deputy head of the National Ecological Center:
“Hunting is the main threat that birds may face during their migration. On their way from the central regions of Africa to the Polar circle, water birds cross the countries in which the season of spring hunting is open. During the flight the birds use water objects as landmarks, and this is where they may be killed by hunters and poachers.
“Many bird species, specifically geese, create joint flocks during migration. So ordinary gray geese may fly together with red-listed species… Clearly, not every hunter looks through the Red Data Book and knows what bird species it includes, so aiming at the bird flock, s/he kills rare birds along with ordinary ones. And these cases are not rare.
“Birds are killed very often on rivers and lakes, where poachers arrange many nets, which most frequently catch water birds. There were cases on the Desna River when nets with over 50 dead birds were taken from floodplain lakes, whereas they were meant for big fish. Different reservoirs are the main reference point for water birds, and they contain one more threat for the life of the birds: they may make a stop on the lakes with water treatment facilities, not realizing the danger. In order to avoid such situations, we must seek and punish those guilty of killing animals with arrests or, at least, heavy fines, ecologists emphasize. The State Ecological Inspectorate and hunting inspectors should deal with this. After all, hunters, among others, should follow the rules of environmental ethics.”
