The Center for the Protection and Study of Birds (CZIP) said that the response of the Directorate of Inspection Affairs to five submitted initiatives to prosecute people who provided photography services with monkeys, snakes, various tropical reptiles, cuckoo owls and numerous exotic parrots, is scandalous.
As stated in the announcement of the CZIP, in the response of the Directorate for Inspection Affairs, the release of an unauthorized person who left the scene with a crocodile is noted.
"After the Siberian tigers, the hippopotamus, the lion, and according to the latest inspection reports, should a crocodile also walk the Montenegrin streets before we officially receive confirmation that we are a wild country, a general jungle, in which the institutions of the system shrug their shoulders, letting criminals go and smugglers of wild and endangered animals to walk carefree," the statement added.
They pointed out that there is a completely justified question, "whether anyone in their right mind can allow an animal, which is a danger to the public, to be released back to a person who has a permit to keep it, and it was stated in the minutes that he did not he owns, he cannot walk a tiger, a lion, a hippopotamus and a crocodile, not even a cute little owl in the streets because they are wild animals."
They reminded that the permits for keeping animals contain strictly prescribed conditions of keeping, among which, as they say from CZIP, you will certainly not read mandatory walking around the city and exposure to random passers-by for the purposes of photography and good seasonal earnings.
"Why, after countless attempts to establish communication and organize a joint action between the Ministry of Ecology, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Police Administration, the Customs Administration, explaining the procedure for confiscating these animals from the CITES list and from the list of legally protected species of the State of Montenegro, is not clear to us. I guess because there is no will to solve this problem because, believe it or not, it is so simple that even children in elementary school could solve it if we explained the problem to them. All these animals could be temporarily handed over at the moment of seizure, to existing holders with adequate conditions until a permanent solution is found for them, in which we have been very successful so far. If we managed to find a solution for lions, falcons, African tortoises, why couldn't we also for these animals. However, what this system allowed, and What we have been warning about all season is that the animals will be smuggled out of the country as they were smuggled into it and will never be rescued from the hell of illegal trade and captivity," the statement reads.
They said that it seems that the last thing on the system's mind is the fact that their actions can make a big difference in the lives of these beings.
"Until now, we have not advertised precisely because we hope that the authorities will take action, with the intention of not informing the smugglers, who would immediately find themselves on the other side of the border," it added.
They said that the Directorate for Inspection Affairs is not doing its job unless the public gets to know about it.
They pointed out that because of this, they are using this opportunity to inform the public that 10 days ago they sent a notice to the environmental inspection that there are two roe deer in captivity in the Poljana village below the peak of Maganika.
"They were expected to go to the field and give an order to release the animals. We offered help in terms of handing over the vehicle because it is an inaccessible field, but we did not receive a response or feedback on whether the inspection acted in this case ", the announcement states.
"Since we are no longer waiting for e-mails and mail, we ask the environmental inspectorate to inform the public about whether they found the time and found the strength to unlock the lock on the doe, or whether it was too complicated a case for them," the CZIP statement concludes.
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