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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS
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NOVEMBER 2005
Humane reps can't get to H5N1 sites in Croatia
DUBROVNIK––Concern that the potentially human-killing avian flu H5N1 might hit Croatia during the October 18-19, 2005 International Companion Animal Welfare Conference in Dubrovnik proved premature.
Though the spread of H5N1 from nearby parts of Romania, Russia, and Turkey was considered inevitable, the first cases were not actually detected until October 21, when six swans were found dead at a fish farm near Zdenci National Park.
Tissue samples from the dead swans were rushed to Britain for further testing, but Croatian officials did not wait for the results before killing all 10,000 chickens and other domestic fowl kept within three kilometers of where the swans were discovered.
Poultry product sales fell by half.
A similar poultry massacre followed when more dead swans were found about 15 kilometres south of the first H5N1 outbreak––but wild birds got a break, when health officials cancelled the hunting seasons for ducks, geese, and woodcocks. Pheasant hunting was briefly suspended, then reinstated, after the proprietors of commercial hunting estates complained about their anticipated losses.
Most of the representatives of international animal advocacy groups who converged on Dubrovnik were still in Croatia when the poultry massacres started, due to limited flight schedules. However, several representatives who looked into monitoring the slaughter to see that the most humane practicable procedures were followed found that almost the only way to get to Zdenci was to fly to Britain first, then fly to Hungary, rent a car, and drive.
Complaints about the slaughter methods were subsequently amplified by Animal Friends Croatia (see below), who complained that the killing was an exercise in mass hysteria.
Defined by ethnic warfare rather than geographic logic, Croatia is shaped like the letter “C.” Zdenci is along the upper edge of the “C.” Zagreb, the national capital, is at the back of the “C.” Dubrovnik lies alongside the Adriatic Sea at the extreme end of the lower portion. The interior of the “C” is Bosnia & Herzegovina.