Salerno, vandals destroy swallows’ nest

After wintering south of the Sahara or in the Indian subcontinent, the swallows are returning to Italy. If they manage to survive during the journey, they are ready, as creatures of habit that they are, to always use the same nests. Often, however, they do not find them, destroyed by the hand of man, out of ignorance or pure malice.

This is what happened a few days ago at Salerno in via Roberto Mazzetti – Casa Roma (Matierno district), where some vandals, committing a crime as these are particularly protected species, destroyed a nest, around which a pair of swallows had been flying around for days. Luckily it was empty, no eggs had been laid yet.

In the following days, the pair of swallows, deprived of their nest, sought makeshift shelter near the destroyed nest, remaining exposed to the cold of the night hours. That nest has been in use for at least three years and has seen dozens of chicks fly into the air and it resisted the elements, it was destroyed with a swipe of the sponge by people with miserable souls, incapable of appreciating such beauty.

A report with photographic documentation was therefore sent to the mayor Vincenzo Napolito the Environment Councilor of the Municipality of Salerno, to the Municipal Police, to the ASL Veterinary District, to the Forestry Carabinieri and the Ecological Operational Unit of Salerno, requesting that it be ascertained whether, in the facts set out above, there are criminally relevant details and hoping that those responsible are prosecuted according to the law.

Please remember that swallows, their nests, eggs and nestlings are protected by law no. 157/92 and article 635 of the penal code, which prohibits killing, damaging and destroying them, as well as being protected by European regulations, such as Directive 409/79 EEC. Criminal and administrative sanctions are foreseen and several Italian municipalities have already adopted further specific ordinances. In addition to filling the skies with joy, with their flights and songs in spring, we remember that, as true “natural insecticides”can swallow, in a single day, a quantity of flies and mosquitoes equal to 170 grams.