05. July, 2019 - Shooting a Rooster, a traditional event in Perast, could be prohibited in the future if organizers do not cease using firearms and live targets. This is now the official request to the competent authorities.
A recommendation to consider and revise the event's content has been sent to the organizers of the Perast Local Community, the Association of Friends of the City of Perast and the Municipality of Kotor, by the Council for Civil Control of Police Work, after last year’s and this year’s protest of the Organization for Animal protection “Korina” because a rooster was killed on the event last year and again this year.
Shooting a live rooster is part of a long tradition in Perast. The "Shooting a Rooster" event, marking a great victory over the Turks in the 17th century, is organized every May 15th.
The Veterinary inspections, according to claims by Korina NGO, confirmed last year that the tradition will be interrupted.
"An order was issued to the organizers last year that they should not use a live animal during the event, but this year they announced that the tradition will remain the same, and that the target will be a living animal," said Tijana Kovačević from this NGO. She contacted the Veterinary Directorate this year.
"They were very undecided, but I insisted that on May 15th, when events were held, they monitored the event. The veterinary inspector later did not answer my phone calls and one of them did not even want to go out to the field. We have also informed the police about everything," she says, adding that at the end of the incident, however, a live animal was used. “Korin” informed the Council for Civil Control of Police Work Inspection about everything, which received a response to the question from the Police Directorate (PD), headed by Veselin Veljovic, on July 2nd. The council, after that, also sent its opinion on everything. In the letter, they recall that the officials of the Kotor police in the particular case took measures and actions within their jurisdiction in accordance with the positive legal regulations. They also add that there were no omissions in the conduct of these actions.
"The PD submitted all collected information to the Basic State Prosecutor (BSP) in Kotor in a timely manner," the Council's letter says, whose members are convinced that the outcome of prosecutors' activities will “be professional".
"After the final assessment of the BSP in Kotor, the Council expects the police to be responsible in the area of its competence, bearing in mind the fact that the use of weapons has been banned in a public place and that the security of citizens could be endangered," they add. The recommendations state that "it is time to re-examine the character and content of this traditional manifestation whose activities and contents must be in accordance with the positive regulations of Montenegro".
"The Council invites LC Perast, the Association of Friends of the City of Perast and the Municipality of Kotor to carefully consider and review the content of this event, which, no matter that it is traditional, has to recognize the unquestioning respect for law in relation to the use of weapons and moral advancement in re-examining and rejecting traditionalism in the treatment of animals," it states, among other things, in the recommendations.
The Council, composed of Aleksandar Sasa Zekovic, Drazen Cerovic, Branislav Radulovic, Vladimir Dobricanin and lawyer Zoran Celebic, invite the Government and "especially its advisory body for the care of animals to encourage activities and efforts to protect the welfare of animals."
The Police Directorate was recommended to temporarily suspend the public gathering of this kind in future or even cease it if it is implemented in the same way as before.
source D. Kalač, "Vijesti"
