AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- The Dutch animal protection agency said Tuesday it is investigating the shooting death of a sparrow that knocked over 23,000 dominoes during an attempt to set a world record.
The ill-fated bird flew into an exposition center, threatening to derail a world record Monday, before it was chased into a corner and shot by an exterminator with an air rifle.
The bird was a common house sparrow -- a species placed on the national endangered list last year.
"Under Dutch law, you need a permit to kill this kind of bird, and a permit can only be granted when there's a danger to public health or a crop," agency spokesman Niels Dorland said.
"That was not the case. I might add, is it really necessary to kill a bird that knocked over a few dominoes for a game?" ...
The Endemol production company, which organized the Domino Day event, defended the killing. The organizers wanted to break their own Guinness World Record of 3,992,397 dominoes set last year by toppling a chain of 4,321,000 blocks.
Around 200,000 dominoes were left to go, and the bird knocked down 23,000 of them.
Endemol spokesman Jeroen van Waardenberg said organizers made a "split-second" decision to shoot down the bird.
"That bird was flying around and knocking over a lot of dominoes. More than 100 people from 12 countries had worked for more than a month setting them up," he said.
He said organizers had believed the building was fully sealed against birds and mice. The company is considering some kind of memorial or mention for the dead bird during the television broadcast Friday, he added.
But Dorland said shooting the sparrow to ensure the success of the program was an overreaction.
"I think they were awfully fast to pull out a rifle," he said. "If a person started knocking over a few dominoes they wouldn't shoot him would they?"
A Dutch website called Geenstijl offered a $1,200 reward for anybody who knocks over the dominoes ahead of time to avenge the bird.
Hans Peeters, director of the Netherlands Bird Protection agency, called the killing "ridiculous." ...
"What to do with the feathers of a meddling sparrow coming across the middle of the line"
Daniel Snyder has defined incompetence, failure and greed to true Washington Redskins fans for over a decade and a half. Stay away from football operations !!!
Boy, I thought our Dutch brothers were a lot more chilled out than that. Mind you, I was over there a couple of months back, and if I spent my whole life dodging cars, trams and bikes, I'd start to get a bit jumpy.
My guess is that if you're the sort of person who gets a kick out of lining up 4 million dominoes, then you're probably slightly unhinged in the first place.
What everybody here seems to forget is that if this rogue sparrow hadn't been stopped what would he have attacked next? It might have been children or even puppy's, gasp! Imagine the horror. What if this sparrow got into a plane and crossed the Atlantic to North America. Domineos, kids and puppy's would have been in danger. I think they did the right thing to a crazy bird that killed 23,000 tiles.
Then again they could have just opened the window and forced him out.
"I never apologize. I'm sorry but that's just the way I am."
Warmother wrote:What everybody here seems to forget is that if this rogue sparrow hadn't been stopped what would he have attacked next? It might have been children or even puppy's, gasp! Imagine the horror. What if this sparrow got into a plane and crossed the Atlantic to North America. Domineos, kids and puppy's would have been in danger. I think they did the right thing to a crazy bird that killed 23,000 tiles.
Then again they could have just opened the window and forced him out.
Presumably, it would only have been a force out if, in the official's opinion, the bird would have had both feet inside the window when he landed, had he not been pushed? Otherwise, it's an incompletion, surely?
And, Why would anyone have a rifle at a Domino event???
