Parrot burglars may be in for a nasty bite

Parrot burglars may be in for a nasty bite

14 May 2014

BURGLARS who stole three rare parrots from an aviary at Seaforde Butterfly House at the weekend may have bitten off more than they can chew.

The owner of the valuable exotic birds has warned they are likely to bite whoever took them from their cages during the Sunday night break-in.

Lady Anthea Forde was devastated to discover the parrots had been stolen when she went to the Butterfly House on Monday morning to open the attraction for a school visit.

She said the cages that keep them safe overnight had been prised open, while the burglars had also attempted, but failed, to steal a number of other smaller birds.

She warned that the birds had a history of biting and were likely to lash out at whoever took them.

Lady Anthea said she was aware gangs were targeting parrot owners in England because of their increasing rarity due to tightening import and export laws and their consequent rising value with each bird valued between £800 and £1,000.

However, she mistakenly believed her birds were safe because of the potential difficulties of transporting them abroad from Northern Ireland.

Despite their tendency to bite, she said she was very fond of her birds and feared the trauma of being taken by strangers overnight could kill them.

One of the stolen birds was a green and red Amazon, called Pedro, which was one of the first birds Lady Anthea brought to Seaforde shortly after the butterfly house opened to the public in 1989.

She said she was asked to take Pedro after he bit his previous owner. He was joined by two African greys — a one-eyed bird named Jack, who had bitten its previous owner’s grandchildren, and Harry, who arrived 12 years ago.

Lady Anthea said the birds were the largest and rarest she owns and had become a big attraction in their own right over the years.

She said they often talked and sang, with one shouting “hello wee Jack” at passers-by and another imitating a wolf whistle when Lady Anthea 

approached.

“These birds are rare in the world,” she continued. “If people had wanted to breed them I would have been happy to lend them my birds, but there was no need to steal them.

“I heard about the difficulties parrot owners in England were facing because of burglaries but I never imagined it would come to me.

“I love my birds and they have lots of room in their large aviary where they can fly from perch to perch.

“I am very upset to have the three empty cages and I had to explain to a school party this morning that they had been taken from us.”