A footballer who kicked a rival team’s owl to death has been ordered to do community work in a zoo and heavily fined.Panamanian international Luis Moreno, who plays for Pereira in the Colombian league, kicked the stricken bird, the mascot of Barranquilla side Atletico Junior, as it lay on the pitch after being hit by a football. The owl died two days later.

Home supporters chanted “Murderer, murderer, murderer!” after the incident and Moreno had to be escorted out of the ground by a police escort.

He later apologised for his actions, saying: “I apologize to the fans, it wasn’t my intention, I did it to see if the owl could fly.”

Barranquilla’s environment office fined Moreno $15,110, ordered him to make a public apology and do community work at the city’s zoo, local official Humberto Mendoza told El Tiempo newspaper.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 29th, 2011 at 8:44 am and is filed under Birds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.