Free Barney!

[TGerard]

Here's a story about a blue and gold macaw, Barney, who is being persecuted for exercising his freedom of speech: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1710646,00.html . Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't macaws social creatures that need others around them to stay happy and healthy :confused:? I have a good mind to send a poison pen letter to the editors.>:

[LoveBird]

I feel bad for the bird.
Taylor

[bellarains]

Sounds like the Vicar took this all in good humor. Also sounds like someone taught this beauty some very colorful language. It's not his fault, and he is only doing as he has been taught. Sounds like they need to place him in a good home, with someone without young ears.

[Buy A Paper Doll]

Poor Barney. I was going to make a joke about "fowl language" but it seems too easy ...

[TGerard]

...Also sounds like someone taught this beauty some very colorful language. It's not his fault, and he is only doing as he has been taught.


Stacey Clark, who works at Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary in Nuneaton, said that the bird had been handed in by a lorry driver three years ago when the man was emigrating to Spain.
"We don't know who taught him the words, but he seems to have a problem with authority figures," said Ms Clark.

I'm betting that the "lorry driver" (a.k.a.: truck driver) is the language tutor. "Swears like a truck driver" isn't a metaphor for nothing!

My :2cents:,

[jknezek]

I don't think solitary confinement in this case means he doesn't get any interaction. I'm pretty sure this Rescue knows what it is doing. But it is pretty funny.
Many people swear their parrots talk in context and know more about who is who than we do. One of the people on the eclectus list I belong to has a simiilar problem with one of her rescues. She believes that people with authority or who believe they have authority radiate something that can be picked up on by animals and people. If the truck driver, or whoever taught him those phrases, picked up on that aura and swore whenever he saw it, the bird would easily pick it up.
For those of us with talking parrots, there is the an old phrase that goes something like "You should always speak like there is a parrot in your house". It's a good rule to live by. Since I got my eclectus, I swear less (except on the golf course, can't help it there for some reason) and speak in much nicer tones.... This poor bird's owner apparently didn't have that kind of restraint.

[Janie]

Well, I got to admit that I LOL when I read about this birds language. Sounds like a bird that I might have raised! :D

I agree, I'll bet he gets plenty of interaction. If I lived close by, I'd spend lots of time with him. We could share new words with each other! :wink:

[Elle]

It's a good thing this happened in Britain and I'm in Canada. My daughter would be first in line to adopt Barney. We've already reprimended her for trying to teach explicit vocabulary to Blu. Thank goodness she only picked up on what I've taught her so far!

[Janie]

Elle, :rofl: Your daughter sounds like my kind of kid! :D