KYIV. May 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) –
An organized criminal group consisting of foreigners of Arabic origin who
smuggled around 500,000 wild song birds from the country in the past 10 years,
in particular, goldfinches, tits, redpolls, bullfinches and siskins, Director
of the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center Volodymyr Boreiko has said.
"According to our
information, this group organized by the Arabs has been operating in Ukraine
for about 10 years. They took out about 0.5 million wild song birds by air.
This is only smuggled, and during the bird catching and transportation tens of
times more are killed. Damage in $ 2.5 million has been caused to
Ukraine," he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.
Boreiko also said that only in
2017 from the Zhuliany airport to Lebanon and Oman 26,950 goldfinches were
exported in twenty batches.
According to the ecologist, the
Arabs pay UAH 50 for one bird to Ukrainian bird catchers, in Lebanon and the
United Arab Emirates they get EUR 50-70 for one bird.
"In these countries,
goldfinches are used as singers, or they are eaten. They make pate from their
tongues, which is considered a great delicacy," he said.
Boreiko said that in this
situation the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, which
should issue permits for the export of birds, has never issued this kind of
permits in 10 years.
"That is, no one applies to
them for permits. They do not issue permits, but millions of birds pass through
our customs officers. The latter simply are not interested in whether there are
documents for exported birds. Veterinarians issue veterinary certificates
without specifying who the true owner of these birds is," he said.
According to him, in order to
stop the smuggling of wild song birds from Ukraine, it is necessary that the
minister of natural resources issued an order for the ecological inspection to
ensure that these birds were not allowed to be exported without separate
permits.
