Montenegro has long been on the corridor of illegal animal trafficking, and the recent case of their unhindered distribution on coastal promenades only confirms this, an ornithologist told "Vijesti" Darko Saveljic.
On the coast, there are regular scenes where you can take photos with parrots, monkeys, and even crocodiles...
Saveljić told "Vijesta" that the Environmental Protection Agency "informed the environmental inspection about the problem of animal exposure on the coast" on several occasions.
"What I have to say is that the Agency has no inspection powers. It cannot stop a person, nor perform an inspection, nor confiscate those animals. Only the Environmental Inspection does that," Saveljic said.
He notes that every animal that enters Montenegro must "possess a passport, a health examination certificate, as well as a permit of origin."
"That animal that enters our country is accompanied by all the documents that confirm that taking it from nature or a breeding ground would not cause any damage, that is, threaten its existence and survival," explains the ornithologist.
Although, according to the Administration for Inspection Affairs, the foreign citizen voluntarily left the place of inspection supervision in Bar, Saveljić tells "Vijesta" that this is not an isolated case of animal abuse.
"It has been done for a long time. However, recently, thanks to social networks, the public has become more and more familiar with these problems. I will mention the case of the white lion in Budva. No one believed. The Environmental Protection Agency repeatedly warned the Ecological Inspection about his presence in that city, and nothing was done until the Agency engaged its volunteers to find the lion. That caused a lot of ridicule in the regional media," Saveljic said, adding that Montenegro has a "constant problem with border permeability."
In 2019, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a public invitation to all owners who keep wild, rare or endangered animals in Montenegro to contact it in order to create a register of owners.
"I was shocked that people keep everything in their yards and apartments. Of the seventy people who were registered as keepers of exotic animals, fifty of them were bird breeders," he explained.
Darko Saveljić warns against the illegal trade in oyster turtles. He reminds that the trade in plant and animal species, as well as species of mushrooms, is just behind the trade in arms and drugs in terms of financial turnover.
"There, 10 billion euros are earned every year. People keep these animals in cages because they think they are nicer there," said Saveljić.
He also adds that he is disappointed with the way the Environmental Inspection works because, as he says, "there have been no concrete activities in the field of identifying those who abuse animals and prosecuting people who torture them."
"This year, the agency did not issue any permits for keeping animals that were walking on coastal promenades. We have laziness of environmental and veterinary inspections, as well as market inspections. We see that absolutely the entire system of control and keeping of such animals in Montenegro has failed," Saveljić told "Vijesta".
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