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October 28, 2005
Tears and threats as parrot owners panic in UK
Many parrot owners are trying to get rid of their birds while others are
being threatened by neighbours as bird flu panic spreads, animal welfare
workers have warned.
Birdline, an organization which rescues dozens of birds every year, said its
phones were ringing off the hook as people pleaded for them to take away
their pets.
Parrot panic is spreading...
Gary Wilcox, founder of Birdline, said: "It's absolutely unbelievable. We
normally get about 10 calls a week but last weekend we
had 102 phone calls from people wanting to give up their birds. It's
ridiculous. We've managed to calm most of them down.
"I had one woman crying her eyes out because she had a six-month-old baby
and she thought the bird was going to kill her baby."
Following the announcement that the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus had been
found in a parrot quarantined in Essex, owners have even received threats
from misinformed neighbours telling them to get rid of their birds.
Mr. Wilcox said: "I've even talked to people with birds whose neighbours are
threatening them and saying 'get rid of your birds, they're going to kill
us'.
"People with aviaries in their gardens are getting ominous letters dropped
through the door."
He said some misinformed owners may have already dumped their birds outside.
One rescue centre had already closed its doors and wasn't taking any more
birds in, he said.
Mr. Wilcox and others are trying to stop panic spreading among owners by
using internet forums. He said: "Even if H5N1 does come here if they keep
their bird inside it's all right. People are not getting the information
they need and we have to stop misinformation and panic."
An estimated 20 million cage birds are kept in Britain, including more than
a million parrots and related species.
Posted by sue at October 28, 2005 02:58 PM
Comments
I hope those of you reading my comments read the entire article. It says that there is NOTHING to panic about. The parrot that got sick was in quarantine with sick birds. Parrots that are caged and in-homes are NOT at risk...not in the EC and not anywhere else.
Also, scientists have stated that birds, such as pigeons and songbirds that are in our backyards do NOT carry this strain and they do not catch the virus. Therefore, do not panic about that either.
Just use common sense and good bio-security.
Also, for those interested, the END-birds Yahoo group is extremely informative. You can find that by applying through the Yahoo Groups.
Maggie-
Posted by: Maggie at October 30, 2005 02:20 PM