Belarus Parrot Smuggler on Bike Foiled!

Exotic bird smuggling is a pet issue of mine, not only since it decimates wild populations of parrots, but because it creates a demand for cheaper black market birds without a proper 'history of origins.' While it is up to the consumer (potential bird companion) to be diligent in determining where their future friend came from, bird smugglers should be busted and prosecuted. So, I'm happy to report that an attempted mass-parrot-smuggling (277 birds on a bike!) was foiled at the Belarus border.

Spokesman Alexander Tishchenko said the smuggler abandoned his bicycle and cargo -- contained in six cages -- and fled back over the border into Ukraine when confronted late on Tuesday at the crossing point of Dubki.

"The cages were fixed to an ordinary bicycle. The parrots were stuffed inside like sardines, 40 to 50 to a cage," he said. "You can imagine what it was like. This was sheer barbarism. Those poor birds."

Two birds had died while the others were kept overnight at the border post. They were then handed over to veterinary inspectors with the eventual aim of offering them to pet shops in the country of 10 million wedged between Russia and three European Union members.

Belarussian border guards last year detained a 19-year-old Russian who was trying to dig his way under the border into Poland using nothing more than a mug.

For more about the unfortunate effects of exotic bird smuggling, there was an excellent write-up in the New Zealand Herald this past December.
Hat tip Kevin for the story.