Parents of children who caused the death of a Czech zoo's flamingo have performed their agreed voluntary labor there

News server iDNES.cz reports that the children who snuck into a zoo in Jihlava, Czech Republic on 10 March and caused the death of a flamingo there have now performed their agreed-to voluntary labor at the zoo together with their parents. The family was asked to pay compensation of CZK 50 000 [EUR 1 860] for the loss of the flamingo, which the children attacked by throwing rocks at it.

The parents have apologized for their children’s actions and promised to pay the compensation, as well as promising to aid the zoo through volunteer labor. They have stuck to their agreement and assisted there with cleanup work.

Now that winter is over, the children and their parents helped clear the access paths to the zoo. “They’ve been here once, they aided us by sweeping the access paths… We were not agreed to a fixed time, we didn’t want them dropping by when there was nothing much to do. The agreement was that when we needed assistance, we would call them and they would come. They actually did that,” Martin Maláč, spokesperson for the zoo, told iDNES.cz.

The entire damages have not yet been paid. The zoo is leaving the timing of the compensation up to the parents, who will have to save up in order to be able to pay.

The zoo also praised the parents’ intention to bring the children wiith them to the zoo for the voluntary labor, which zoo staffers said they believed would be educational. A big wave of negativity in response to news of the bird’s death flooded the Czech media, in part because it was reported that the children involved are Romani.

A local march was even planned in support of the zoo. However, out of concern that it might lead to racist unrest, it was ultimately not held.