This is definitely a case case of Birds Guano Wild.

....sorry

I thought that news was fitting somewhere in between Sandy, elections, Athena and Brutus storms...

Bernd-

You wrote "politicians have not invented yet a law against that."

The key word is YET.

-Babka

Yeah, sad when someone is an animal hoarder, it is going past the point of mistreating themselves.

And since it is Illinois, I betcha I know where many of the birds who LIVE, will end up. I am a supporter of Iowa Parrot Rescue near Muscatine Iowa. The folks who run it are very dear friends of mine. I've driven from Alabama to their place several times to take birds there when owners could not keep the bird. And, Mike and Abi also take birds which Customs confiscates, which law enforcement all across the midwest take from abusive owners. And that is what a hoarder is, an abuser. With regular cases, the birds are eventually placed in good private homes verified through inspection and interviews. They do not SELL the birds.

Through the years, they kept my birds for a year after Hurricane Katrina and charged me nothing. A friend flew my 5 birds up there in a private plane, which awed me actually, and then after my house was condemned they found homes for 3 of them. One died from stress of enduring Katrina. I have only one of my parrots from those years, and two others which I adopted due to owner illness and death. From friends I made through online bird forums.

I feel very strongly about a militant stance on animal cruelty, even in cases where it is a mental problem that causes the abuse. The perpetrator (not dignified with the term OWNER or CAREGIVER) requires treatment either with incarceration, fines, or medication, and banned forever from owning a living creature again.

As atonement, perhaps volunteer work in the local Animal Control facility cleaning up kennels or something.

In fact, I do not think I'd let them have one of my HOSTA. They are SICK PEOPLE.

Here is a link that might be useful: Iowa Parrot Rescue

Moccasin, sorry when I offended you! Taking care of parrots very well is an honorable undertaking.

Sometimes my mind wanders. I read "more than 400" in that news, and since this here is a hosta forum naturally connected to my hostas being just under 400 including seedlings. So I thought Wow, lucky these are not birds. Then I also had read about US prisons now housing 4 times as many prisoners than in the 1960s and the US Supreme Court commenting about that to Congress. I just also read at the financial forum bogleheads.org about one man trying to establish a contract chicken growing operation where chicks get grown to full size in 5 weeks and then killed. Some of those operations contain 1,000,000 chicken birds.

Sorry about offending you.
Bernd

Oh no no Bernd, you did NOT offend me. I was going to ask you where the news came from, because my connections may already be involved with this particular hoarding incident.

Honey, I did not intend my remarks to be offensive to you either. I just get all riled up when creatures are so mistreated. Perhaps a dog or cat could make an escape, but a bird imprisoned in a cage has no escape. I've seen photos from other cases like this one, and it breaks my heart.

About the prisoners and overcrowding..... one proposal was to PRIVATIZE prisons, which to me is like going to BRAVE NEW WORLD somehow, or science fiction where they harvest the organs of prisoners---and the chain gangs of times long gone by when prisoners were used for all sorts of private work and the local law enforcement.......well, it was the topic of many old movies, a way to get "trouble makers" off the streets......this is not a good time for me to engage in such a discussion since I am ready to turn in for the night. Many movies along those lines you know. But none about animal abuse to my knowledge. They make Premarin for estrogen from the urine of pregnant mares, keep them in a constant state of pregnancy, and kill the foals. Not really something I'd want in my body anyway. And down south they already have the chickens raised something like that, using red lights 24 hours a day, the red impels the pecking reflex in the chicks, and so they grow quicker, and if one of the chicks is injured and bleeds, the others peck it to death and might consume it, not sure about that part though. I'm not sure if there is any use of hormones in this quick growth, but I'm sure they are not raised like my grandma raised her chickens, free ranging they call it now. But at least hers had natural feed and were healthy to consume.

I'm sorry I couldn't resist linking this pic even though it is a Hosta forum this is OT.

This is Miss Nicholas Taylor (she was named before sexing). She is one of my three cockatiels.

When you hear about incidents such as this is does soften your heart to the animals involved and makes you wonder what comes over these people that they can't see the harm they are doing.

Good that we have people like Mocc and her friends, and anyone else out there who helps animals in need. Animals are such a special gift to this world and we should enjoy them, not destroy them.

Sorry, off my soap box.

Here's Nick getting her rump toasty on the fan from the modem.

I haven't read all of the posts in this thread so I apologize for my ignorance ahead of time. I have been following this story for several weeks now on local tv. I don't believe any of those birds were caged. So talk about a s--t storm. Everything was covered with bird poop. I never heard how they had seen inside, but come construction workers had seen the birds as well as dead birds laying around.

The first reports were concerned about the health issue and possible spread of disease such as parrot feaver among the neighborhood. When a subpoena was obtained the server entered and immediately turned around and locked down the house, locked up the owner, and ordered peeps (put intended for ken) to come to the site with protective breathing apparatus and apparel.

This is not much different than the "Confined Space" laws included in most governmental safety laws. It also presented a legit environmental hazard. The potential for diseases of birds, as well as other animals and people, flourishing inside that house was extremely high and concern was that it might infect local native birds.

I don't recall what he was finally charged with. I do know that he himself was evacuated through Executive Order and the city filed suit in court to make him responsible for the cleanin up. The court so ordered, set standards of clean-up with time stipulations, and if he didn't do it, the government would and back-charge costs to him. (We all know how costs escalate when left to our government which buys a hammer for hundreds of dollars)

Moc, I hear ya'! There is no way one person in a small house can properly manage the health and welfare of that many birds. He couldn't even keep up with disposing of the ones dying.

Laws providing for the welfare of animals have been around for a long time - as long as I can remember. I know I'd broken one as a child bringing home a Purple Galinule with a broken wing I'd found on the bank of the north fork of the Chicago River. (The river was a slow-flowing sewer at the time and I figured getting the bird away from it was a good deed.) But the law prohibited a person from capturing a wild bird and keeping it in a house. I was only 11 years old. I set the birds wing and gently held it aginst its body with a loose Ace. It didn't seem to mind the bandage. But they are wading birds and eat live fish and I couldn't get it to eat anything else. It starved to death and I'd learned a lesson.

I haven't seen the government do anything inappropriate in dealing with his situation. I did see yesterday that it was getting national attention though, but haven't read the new reports.

Boy am I glad Hostas don't poop. I'd be in deep === well, you know what I mean. We all would.

Les