RIGA (AFP) – Latvia came down hard on a man who squashed the eggs of a protected bird species, issuing a EUR50,000 fine that his lawyers said valued them as if they were pure gold.
A court in the Baltic state ordered the penalty after the man came across the nests of black-headed gulls – a protected species – and crushed several eggs.
“These 10 eggs are priced higher than if they were made of pure gold,” his lawyers protested, according to a report from local paper Latvijas Avize.
Judge Lauris Shnepsts however remained unmoved, arguing that it was wrong “to compare precious wildlife with a piece of shiny metal”.
“I hope this case will set a legal precedent for wildlife protection in our country,” he told reporters following Tuesday’s verdict.
The incident dates back to the spring of 2021, when Artis Krumins rowed across a northern lake to an island inhabited only by wild birds and smashed the eggs.
The crime may have gone unnoticed had it not been for a local scientist who happened to be doing field research there and whose footage helped crack the case.
“I tried to calm down the eggcrusher but he got even more aggressive, he started to use his oars to throw up eggs in the air and hit them,” the professor later testified in the courtroom.
