Czech Republic: Parents of children who killed flamingo have apologized and will pay damages

The parents of the children who killed a flamingo at the zoo in Jihlava are willing to pay damages or work them off. Zoo director Eliška Kubíková informed the public of the developments in an interview with news server Lidovky.cz.

The incident happened on 10 March just after noon. Three schoolchildren between the ages of five and eight crawled through the fence at the Jihlava zoo and threw rocks at the flamingos.

The children were captured on video footage and flamingo breeders removed as many as 30 rocks from the flamingo area. "The fathers of all the children visited the zoo and apologized for the entire situation. We have agreed on financial compensation. They said they are prepared to pay off the damages. For the time being there is the will to resolve everything out of court," Kubíková said.

"They have offered to work off at least part of their 'debt'. We have not yet taken specific steps on that, because we have to arrange work tools and prepare for it. However, we are interested in that and we did not refuse it. It seems educational to us," the zoo director said.

The killing of the bird sparked a wave of reactions, with some people deciding they would organize a march about it. Later, however, they cancelled that plan over concerns that people would express racism and xenophobia during the march, as the children involved in the incident were Romani.

Kubíková said a march would not be the correct form of response. "We greatly appreciate that people want to support the zoo, or that they are at least presenting themselves as wanting to do so. However, I am not certain whether that is the correct form for expressing support or one that we would welcome. The biggest support to any zoo is to visit it. A march is not something we would want to organize," she said.

Instead of a march, there is supposed to be a public meeting with representatives of the town at the zoo or near it. "I would like to clarify the purpose of the meeting with the organizers, however, whether it actually will be about supporting the zoo, familiarizing the public with the importance of its mission, concentrating on the significance of the animals. If that is the main aim, we are 100 % for it," the zoo director said.