Angelo Citro has finally received the death certificate for his Lizard canary that perished on the journey to the World Show. It was received via e-mail with the following message:
Ogg: Certificati Sanitari Matosinhos
Buongiorno,
trasmettiamo in allegato il file – formato .pdf – della certificazione, rilasciata dal Responsabile del Servizio Veterinario del 64° Campionato Mondiale di Ornitologia, relativa ai Suoi soggetti.
Distinti saluti, Segreteria F.O.I.-Onlus
Subject: Health Certificate, Matosinhos
Good morning,
Please find attached a file – pdf format – of the certification, issued by the Head Veterinary Officer of the 64th World Championship of Ornithology, concerning this subject.
Yours sincerely, the Secretariat, F.O.I.-Onlus (1)
Considering the circumstances, this is about as perfunctory a statement as you could imagine. No apology, no regret, no words of condolence. Note that FOI (2) still refers to this as a ‘health certificate’; yet another example of its reluctance to admit the awful truth. I understand that FOI has to be careful because of the legal and financial repercussions of the tragedy, but for an organisation that aims to propagandare l’amore e la conoscenza degli uccelli (propagate the love and knowledge of birds) this message treats the real victims – the birds and their breeders – with needless indifference.
Footnotes:
- F.O.I. = Federazione Ornicoltori Italiani (Italian Ornithological Federation). Onlus is a ‘not for profit’ organisation.
- FOI is an acronym for F.O.I.. It rhymes with ‘boy’.