Feel flamingos laughing at themselves The man was sentenced for killing 14 flamingos in a park late at night

Between the cramped aviary, the bloodstained walls have been repainted. However, the occasional strange noise in the night still made the flamingos, which looked "cold" during the day, suspicious and tightly curled up together.

Recalling the scene they saw in the early morning of 2021, the staff of the Bird Language Forest in a park in Dalian, Liaoning Province still have palpitations, and the surviving flamingos at the scene screamed in amazement, and the corpses of 14 flamingos were all over the aviary...... The zoo staff reported that the flamingos in the Bird Language Forest Park had been killed. The public security organs immediately filed a case for investigation and found that Xiao was a major suspect. In April 2023, Xiao was summoned to the case.

On March 20, the court sentenced Xiao to five years in prison and a fine of 10,000 yuan, and compensated the victim company 280,000 yuan for the crime of endangering precious and endangered wild animals. Xiao pleaded guilty and accepted punishment for the crime committed.

The flamingos were too noisy and chased with sticks

On May 7, 2023, the Zhongshan District Procuratorate approved Xiao's arrest. On July 7, the public security organs transferred the case to the procuratorate for review and prosecution.

During the examination, the prosecutor handling the case found that Xiao had received three administrative punishments for intentionally destroying property, injuring people, and stealing, and that his mother, community personnel, and neighbors all confirmed that Xiao was in a poor mental state, and that he had repeatedly smashed things, disrupted the normal life of his surroundings, and interfered with the work of community workers, and that his behavior after drinking alcohol was even more abnormal, and his family did not have the conditions and ability to control him.

Late at night on the day of the incident, Xiao came to the vicinity of the Bird Language Forest in Zhongshan District, Dalian City, and suddenly felt upset when he heard the sound of birds in the park, and in order to vent his anger, he entered the Bird Language Forest and picked up a wooden stick to chase and beat the flamingos in the aviary, causing the death of 14 flamingos. When he walked out of the gate of the Bird Forest, the janitor saw that he smelled of alcohol and chased him away.

In the face of the prosecutor's interrogation, Xiao admitted frankly that because the night was too quiet and the birds were too noisy, he felt that they were laughing at him, so he took advantage of the strength of the wine to temporarily beat the flamingo to death.

Whether flamingos are rare, endangered wild animals

"The case was returned for supplementary investigation, mainly because the species of the flamingo, the value appraisal and the identification of Xiao's mental condition all need to be enriched with evidence. Liu Yanxia, the prosecutor handling the case, said.

The flamingo is a flamingo of the family Flamingo with its flaminge and elegant body, and is a large waterfowl that often inhabits the shallow waters of temperate tropical salt water lakes, marshes and lagoons, and lives mainly in Africa, South America and India. With the rapid decline of wetlands around the world, the survival of the flamingo is at risk, and all six species are currently listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2013 and Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). These organisms are extremely small in number and have a very narrow distribution range, and have important economic, scientific, genetic and biological value.

"In recent years, with the change in the criterion of criminalization in criminal cases of destruction of wildlife resources, the determination of the species and price of some wild animals involved in the case, especially whether they are precious and endangered wild animals under the Criminal Law, requires solid evidence and sufficient argumentation. Liu Yanxia said.

According to the judicial interpretations issued by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Court, national rare and endangered wildlife mainly include wildlife listed in the List of Wild Animals under National Key Protection, or wild animals that have been approved by the wildlife protection department of the State Council and managed in accordance with national key protection. Accordingly, although some wild animals are listed in Appendix I and II of the Convention, they cannot be automatically transformed into national first- and second-class protected animals.

"After referring to the Notice on Approving Some Endangered Wild Animals as Wild Animals under National Key Protection and the State Forestry Administration's reply to the Burmese tortoise in 2009, whether the flamingo involved in the case is a wild animal that is not native to the mainland is the focus of the case, including the issue of artificial breeding and the value of the flamingo involved in the case, which needs to be confirmed one by one, which is the key to conviction and sentencing. Liu Yanxia said.

To this end, the prosecutor communicated with the investigators several times. In June 2023, the public security organs again commissioned an appraisal agency in Yunnan to conduct a second appraisal of the species, protection level and value of flamingos, and consulted the professional opinions of species identification experts from Nanjing Forest Public Security University. During the examination and prosecution stage, the court guided the public security organs to go to the customs, forestry bureaus, import and export companies, original import and export units, and other units to obtain evidence such as the "Explanation of the Flamingos", "Import and Export Certificates", import and export invoices, and detailed accounts, and obtained the original documentary evidence proving the import at the Dalian Municipal Archives, and finally determined the fact that the flamingos were imported from Cuba, consolidated the import and export chain of the flamingos involved in the case, and determined that the flamingos involved in the case belonged to wild animals that did not originate to the mainland, and should belong to the national second-class protected animals in accordance with the relevant regulations of the mainland. After determining the level of protection, domestication and breeding, and other factors, the procuratorate determined that the value of the flamingo involved in the case was 280,000 yuan.

Whether there was full capacity for criminal responsibility at the time of the crime

According to the judicial appraisal opinion issued by the appraisal agency for the first time, Xiao had full capacity for criminal responsibility at the time of the crime, but only a week later, Xiao was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for treatment of bipolar disorder several times, and it was not until 2023 that the investigating agency summoned him in place. Their mental condition is another very important factor in conviction and sentencing. The prosecutor handling the case said.

In order to further verify, the procurator obtained the admission medical records and diagnostic conclusions of the psychiatric hospital, psychiatric rehabilitation center, and other medical institutions where he was treated, and after conducting a comprehensive study and judgment with the technical evidence review department, the procurator decided to entrust a forensic appraisal agency in Beijing to conduct a forensic appraisal of Xiao again.

On December 11, 2023, the second appraisal opinion also showed that Xiao was indeed a "harmful use" of alcohol, and was in a remission period of bipolar disorder at the time of the crime.

The prosecutor handling the case believes that Xiao's conduct constitutes the crime of endangering precious and endangered wild animals, and the animals involved in the case are worth 280,000 yuan, and at the same time constitute the crime of intentional destruction of property, which is an imaginary joint offense, and should be punished as a felony in accordance with law, and should be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years according to the crime of intentional destruction of property, and should be sentenced to more than five years imprisonment according to the crime of endangering precious and endangered wild animals, and should be found to be a crime of endangering precious and endangered wildlife in accordance with law. On January 23, 2024, the procuratorate indicted the case. The court rendered the above judgment after trial.

(Source: Procuratorate Daily, Der Spiegel Author: Yang Qianchun, Ren Ting)