For mockery over cormorants - a 23 million fine

The criminal case will not be initiated, because the cormorants are not a hunting bird species.

The court of Chashnitski district decided to fine the resident of Chashnitski district for mutilation of cormorant's chicks by 2.5 million BYR and collect the cost of the damage to the environment of 20.7 million BYR to the state revenue, informs BelTA.

The man who cut off the beaks of more than a hundred young cormorants, was a fisherman of a local fishing farm. Explaining his staggering and macabre action in court, he said that he "heard about the harm that cormorants cause by eating too much fish". According to him, he turned chicks’ heads away and then cut off the top of the beak.

Recall that in mid-June ornithologists have discovered nearly 100 young cormorants, with severed beaks on the island of one of the reservoirs, located in Chashnitski district, Vitebsk region. Mutilated chicks were captured and put to death.