Domino Day 2005 sparrow
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The Domino Day 2005 sparrow (sometimes abbreviated to dominosparrow) was a House Sparrow, Passer domesticus, that was shot and killed by a hunter from the company Duke Faunabeheer in the Frisian Expo Centre in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands during the preparations of Domino Day 2005 on November 14, 2005. With only four days to go until Domino Day 2005, the bird flew into the building and landed on several domino bricks, eventually causing 23,000 of them (out of 4 million) to fall. Because of the protective gaps that were placed between groups of bricks, the damage was limited. Faunabeheer was hired to remove the unwanted intruder from the centre. After trying to capture the sparrow with nets and sticks, the company decided to shoot the animal. Afterwards the shooter was fined 200 euros for illegally killing an animal belonging to a protected species.
After several Dutch newspapers and television stations announced what had happened in the Frisian Expo Centre, several animal rights organizations, popular blogs like GeenStijl.nl and radio DJs like Ruud de Wild devoted time and attention to the subject. They claimed that killing an animal in order to save a television show is a low deed, and accused the shooter of having no respect for animal life. The latter two said that they were willing to reward with 5,000 euros "the person who could complete the sparrow's task" by causing all the other bricks to fall down. However, nobody was able to do this since the security around the Frisian Expo Centre tightened following the sparrow incident and death threats against Faunabeheer, SBS Broadcasting, and Endemol.
The Dierenbescherming, the Dutch equivalent of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, has tried Endemol (who broadcast the event) and Faunabeheer for their actions against the domino sparrow. The curator of birds of the Natural History Museum Rotterdam, Kees Moeliker, to secure the already immortalized bird for science and education, requested that the authorities hand over the sparrow to the museum.
Exactly a month after the sparrow's death, the Dutch Public Prosecutor (that had seized the sparrow) handed the bird over to the Natural History Museum. The museum will display the mounted bird, together with other famous sparrows, in its upcoming major exhibition on the House Sparrow in November 2006, a year after the incident.
