Greek hotel fined for using parrots to attract guests

Photo from facebook page ARDSthess

Hotel owner in northern Greece's Chalkidiki fined by authorities for cruelty to birds – he used two parrots to attract guests.

Animal rights group Animal Rescue and Defense Squad filed a complaint with the police and local authorities in the resort of Pefkohori against the owners of the hotel, who, in their opinion, were committing passive violence against two parrots, expressed in the exploitation of the birds.

Two macaw parrots sat on a perch in the hotel's beach bar, attracting visitors with their appearance.

“With the perfect cooperation of all of us, on the orders of the prosecutor, two macaws that were being used for profit on Pefkohori beach were removed”– the group said in a Facebook post. The hotel owners have been sued for allegedly passive cruelty to birds, and by order of the Prosecutor of Chalkidiki, the animals were removed and the hotel owners were imposed an administrative fine, as provided for in Article 14 of the 2021 law, which amounted to 20,000 euros.

“We hope that our actions will help reduce the exploitation of birds for profit.”– the animal rescue and protection squad stated.

To clarify: this is not about violence or mistreatment of the birds, the fine was imposed because the parrots were sitting on a perch and attracting tourists with their appearance. Apparently, the birds were treated well, but they were “exploited”, and for some reason the authorities decided that this is prohibited by law.

I understand that if the owner of a horse, dog or other pet cruelly abuses it, this is definitely against the law. But if he uses it for his own “selfish purposes”, for example, riding a horse is also a violation of the law? And the owner of the dog puts it on a chain for protection, that's also passive abuse and exploitation?

So why are parrot owners punished? How exactly is the law violated? Or are we again returning to the unpleasant fact of pressure on the court from “blatnye” animal rights activists?

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