2023-11-27 05:52:00
His name was Rambo. It was a splendid blue and yellow macaw native to South America. He was the pride of his owner, an Antwerp resident who had trained him to “free flight”. This involves releasing a parrot outside for flight with the assurance that it will return following its release. Which requires a long apprenticeship.
On December 29, 2018, Rambo was released on a farmer’s field in Westmalle with the farmer’s permission. Unfortunately, the area was also recognized as a hunting area. So much so that at the sight of this parrot, an ambush hunter did neither one nor two. He pointed his rifle skyward and fired, killing the parrot.
Rambo’s owner went to court. At the end of 2021, the Antwerp criminal court sentenced the hunter to a suspended fine of 4,000 euros. He ordered the confiscation of the hunting weapon and awarded 7,250 euros in damages to Rambo’s owner.
The hunter appealed. His lawyer argued that free flight with a parrot was an illegal activity, that it was the introduction of a non-native species that might harm the environment. It is legitimate to fight once morest exotic or invasive species.
Crazy story: a parrot stolen three years earlier from a police officer shouts his name as a patrol approaches… who returns it to its owner
The hunter in court
The court of appeal handed down its judgment last May. She followed this reasoning. She acquitted the hunter and ordered Rambo’s owner to pay legal costs.
The latter filed a cassation appeal. And the court ruled that a macaw cannot survive in the wild in Belgium. It does not pose a threat to other animals. It does not lay eggs in the wild. Furthermore, he was in the care of a human being. It is therefore not an introduction of an exotic animal into the wild.
As a result, it has just overturned the judgment of the Antwerp Court of Appeal. The Court of Cassation referred the case to the Court of Appeal of Ghent which will have to judge the hunter. The man will therefore have to appear in court for the third time for this shooting.
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#fate #Rambo #parrot #Court #Cassation
