A priest tries to defend the parrot's freedom and its ability to live on the Bistrampolis estate
Although the parrot Ara ararauna has been living in the Bistrampolis Manor in Panevėžys district for three years now, the court proceedings are not over yet – yesterday, Panevėžys District Court once again heard the case of the manager of the Bistrampolis Manor, The law must be followed
In the opinion of the manager of Bistrampolis Manor, the Ministry of Environment is the legislator, but it interprets the laws in interesting ways and passes the discussion of the issues on to lower authorities.
„Those authorities have responded selectively or not at all to queries. Lithuania has an Animal Protection Act. This law contains the term „pet“, which includes dogs, cats, ferrets. There is also a classification of pets in that law, which explains what a pet is. There are a number of animals listed in the Pet Classification. Parrots are among those that are pets: macaws, cockatoos and jaccos. These pets are not subject to a pet permit. According to this law, keeping a pet parrot, the macaw, does not require a permit and the bird can be kept at home," said the priest, who said that environmental officials are violating the Animal Protection Act by issuing fines and apologies.
„It was therefore decided, after consulting a lawyer, to defend the parrot's freedom. We hope that the parrot's freedom will be defended and that I will not be punished again and will be able to keep the parrot at Bistrampolis Manor," explained the priest.
Bought a parrot
It will be recalled that R. Gudelis, the manager of Bistrampolis Manor, bought the Ara ararauna parrot almost three years ago during a visit to Poland. He registered it with the Veterinary Service. According to the Department of Environmental Protection, he should have obtained a permit from their authority to keep a wild animal of a protected species in captivity, but he did not have such a permit.
