Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Kites Kill Flamingoes

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

CARACAS, Apr 3 2004 (IPS) - Dozens of flamingoes were killed in recent weeks by children and adolescents in the Tucurere wildlife preserve in the northwestern Venezuelan state of Falcón, reports the Ministry of Environment. “The massacre was perpetrated by children ages six to 14,” who flew kites with metal blades to hunt the birds, ministerial representative for the area, Freddy Eizaga, told Tierramérica.

Then the minors sold the birds for a dollar each, “but it is not out of hunger, because there are plenty of fish here,” said Carlos López, resident of Tucurere.

But Mayor Francis Arias maintains that “the villagers eat the flamingoes because they simply don't have anything else.”

There are some 37,000 flamingoes in Venezuela, mostly the pink flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber). The habitat for the vast majority is the wetlands refuges along the country's Caribbean coast.