tragic story, please read.

[jimpierce]

I received this email from a customer this morning:

During the early morning hours today, my wife and I lost all 4 of our Amazons to a tragic death. We had a new GE Profile Microwave/Convection oven installed in our home after the original one in our home stopped working. At 1:30 AM my wife, not having eaten for most of the day decided to cook a small microwave dinner. About a half an hour after wards, our 28 year old Yellow Nape fell from her perch in the cage to the floor. It wasn't long after that that "Pedro" gasped her last breath and died in my wife's arms. Just then I heard a crash in the room where our 2 Double Yellows are in their cage at night. One of these birds, "Goldey" is the close companion of "Pedro" and I thought he was watching and heard what happened and was upset. I went to the area where that cage is and found "Goldey" on his back and in distress also. Shortly after picking "Goldey" up from the floor of the cage he took his last gasps and died in my arms. I had noticed that the other Double Yellow in the cage with "Goldey" seemed at the time to be fine, and I went to the cage where our Blue Front "Ollie" was and found her in distress. After picking "Ollie" up she died the same horrible death as the other two within 10 minutes. Within 30 seconds, I heard the horrible cry of our last bird, "Casey" also a Double Yellow as he fell to the floor. Within 5 minutes Casey was gone also. Need I tell you that my wife Lisa and I are devastated. This after having lost our 5th bird, a Double Yellow "Harley" to cancer in February of this year. Not a good year for us.

The reason for my email to you is two fold. One, we would like to know the cost of the birds if we were to buy them today, and second we want to make sure that everyone seeking to buy a GE Profile combination microwave/convection oven not do so until GE has addressed what toxins have been emitted taking the lives of our birds.

Thank you for any cost information you will provide. When we have weathered the grief of this days events, we will most likely be coming to your store bird hunting.

Also, we have been in contact with GE and they so far are reacting in what we think is a responsible manner to address what has happened here.
Thank you.

PLEASE POST THIS WHEREVER POSSIBLE. It is quite apparent that the death of these birds was due to this oven. There were no warnings contained anywhere on the oven.

[HaleBoppPeachyluv]

OMG.

Blessings and prayers to that family.

Thank you for the warning.

[linda040899]

Thank you for sharing this with us, Jim.
I'm always so very hesitant about buying new appliances, as I can never be totally sure if anything in them can cause harm to my flock. Our world, today, is all about bottom line profit so it does not surprise me that there were no warnings with this microwave/convection oven.

[Flip]

Oh that is so sad. What a tragic story. You'd think that people would realize that if the chemicals are toxic enough to harm our precious babies, that they'd be bad for us too. There is so much about "progress" that upsets me. My heartfelt condolences go out to the family who lost their little ones.

[Pips mom]

How very sad. I know we've all heard stories like this before.....these companies really need to start labeling their products with warnings for bird owners when any non-stick,or PTFE is used in their product. Bird owners need to start taking a stand on this......even if just the people who have lost birds due to it.....there has to be alot of them. That poor family. At least they say that GE is caring about the situation.

[jimpierce]

it may have been the spray they use on new appliances before they leave the factory. If you have ever turned on a new stove and that funny smell you get? Thats the stuff burning off.

[LauraO]

What a horrid story. I had to stop reading it! I appreciate you sharing it though.

[linda040899]

When I bought my new range/self-cleaning oven (never use the self-clean feature), I chose a glass top. I have to admit that I was afraid to turn it on the first time, as I needed to make sure there was no coating on the glass top! Once Whirlpool assured me that the top was nothing but tempered glass, I relaxed and cooked my first meal!

[Pips mom]

it may have been the spray they use on new appliances before they leave the factory. If you have ever turned on a new stove and that funny smell you get? Thats the stuff burning off.

Ok, so if it is a spray, then we need to know if that's what it is because we could safely remove birds from the home the first few times using it until it is all burned off........we need to know these things.......innocent, precious animals are being killed......don't they get it? Do we need to hit these people a few times in the head or what? Alot of people think of their birds the same as they would their children......and take them to the vet and spend tons of money on their health! for what? so companies can just put whatever they want into their products with no concern for lives lost? The VERY least companies can do is to warn of these things and they should HAVE to put on a warning on ANY product that has any kind of coating, spray, teflon, PTFE, any of that! Not even to protect people.......people can go their computers and read up on that stuff and it isn't going to kill them overnight! Poor birds don't have that luxury. I think all us bird people need to start finding out how we can have laws to make companies put warnings on their products. Maybe we should all call our local TV news and see if they'd do a story on it! since there aren't any warnings on these things, at least that would get the word out to bird owners! geez!

[StormyMom]

Wow Jim thats incredibly sad. Did you post this on Heathers as well?

I couldnt imagine losing all my fids in one day..talk about devastating. And just imagine the harm it did to them, what is it doing to us? Very scary

[jimpierce]

yes I did.

[Pips mom]

Well, I don't where else to write at this time, but I found this.....
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/cbsnews_investigates/main500690.shtml
CBS news investigates, and I sent them an email. I'm sure we all can find other places who may be interested in this story and want to spread the word and help save the lives of birds from a such a cruel death. There NEEDS to laws to protect them so warnings have to be put on products that will kill them.

[michael]

How shocking!......:(......This is one of the most tragic cases of parrot fatalities due to toxic chemicals i've ever heard of. Certainly, this could have very well happened to any one of us had we not been well informed.

The difficulty with chemical poisoning is that its almost always irreversible. Should a patient survive, their recovery can ultimately prove both painful and extremely uncertain.

Thank you Jim....For taking the time to share what could very well save more lives. Prayers for this family.

[LovelySydney]

What a very sad story. Thank you for informing us. Our kitchen is on the other side of the house, farthest away from Olly. We do not take any chances when it comes to kitchen appliances - I know what tragedy they can cause. My thoughts go out to the family.

[bbslovie]

Hi Jim, thanks for sharing this tragedy with us. This helps to prevent similar incidents from happening. I can't imagine the pain and heartache that family is feeling right now. My heart goes out to them. Please send them our prayers and good wishes.

Barb :very_sad:

[Flapjack]

OMG, how sad for this couple. :very_sad:

Last year, for Mother's Day, my husband bought me all new stainless GE Profile appliances. Huge fridge, glass top oven, micro and dishwasher.

I was pretty scared the first time we used them, but we ended up ok.

Mine is the micro only- no convection. Thank goodness!

I can't imagine the devastation of losing all your fids at once.

Also- you said it was a microwave dinner, correct? Alot of them have teflon in the packaging. Those can be scary too.

[Pips mom]

Apparently GE does have warnings on some of their products concerning birds, they give a 1 800 number to call for instructions on how to prevent any harm to birds before using the new oven or stove, so I guess they do try. Still.....if the law made them ALL put warnings on dangerous products then things like this wouldn't happen! Sorry....I just want to scream it from the roof tops and wish these companies would care enough to put warnings. :mad:

[Chickobee]

This is terrible! Now it really scares me. We have a propane stove in our house that will be our alternate heat source when we have no power in the winter. It is vented outside and fully enclosed so we have been told it won't cause any problems during normal operation.

But, what is a problem is that it will take a couple of hours when we first ignite it to burn off any chemicals from the manufacturing of the stove. We have been told this will take a couple of hours.

Our plan is to move all of the bird cages to our back deck and I will supervise them out there while we burn off the stove and wait for the house to air out again. For this reason we didn't connect the stove or try to light it this last winter because of the birds.

Now the weather is warm enough for the birds to be outside without getting too cold. Our alternative plan is to move the birds upstairs, close the doors to the bedrooms where they are, and open the windows. That way I wouldn't need to monitor them the entire time because we have our feral cats outside and they would really enjoy lovie snacks.

I have been so paranoid about hooking up the stove but we do need some source of heat if we have no power in the winter. I also don't use the self cleaning feature on my oven and wonder how I will clean it when it gets really awful. The chemical cleaners are also very toxic so that isn't an option either. So, for now it is just gradually getting dirty! :P

Jim; Thank you for posting this as a reminder to all of us that we need to be diligent about researching the products we introduce into our birds' environment.

It would be so awful to lose all of our birds like that! Each on is just so special.

[Pips mom]

I had the same concerns when we got a new furnace last year. I had heard that a new furnace needs to run and burn off anything dangerous. They started hooking up the new furnace over the summer, so I wasn't worried because I figured it would be warm enough to take them out or open windows when it was first run. Turned out they took their time.....my boyfriend had friends from work doing it cheap at their convenience! so it was fall when it finally was ready to run! I still opened the windows though the first day and everything was fine.
I think all of us bird people all must have dirty stoves, huh! Someone told me baking soda works good and just use some elbow grease and no worry about fumes. Also there is this product out there that is supposed to be bird safe....
https://www.pinksolution.ca/

[thebubbleking]

I would die! I am all alone just me and my fids...i don't think i could handle that!

[cp.lovebird]

What a horrible tragedy! Thank you for sharing this Jim. Education is so important to help all of us keep our birds safe and healthy.

[maya_exquisite]

Oh man... that is insane. So tragic. :(

[rob]

I received this email from a customer this morning:

During the early morning hours today, my wife and I lost all 4 of our Amazons to a tragic death. We had a new GE Profile Microwave/Convection oven installed in our home after the original one in our home stopped working. At 1:30 AM my wife, not having eaten for most of the day decided to cook a small microwave dinner. About a half an hour after wards, our 28 year old Yellow Nape fell from her perch in the cage to the floor. It wasn't long after that that "Pedro" gasped her last breath and died in my wife's arms. Just then I heard a crash in the room where our 2 Double Yellows are in their cage at night. One of these birds, "Goldey" is the close companion of "Pedro" and I thought he was watching and heard what happened and was upset. I went to the area where that cage is and found "Goldey" on his back and in distress also. Shortly after picking "Goldey" up from the floor of the cage he took his last gasps and died in my arms. I had noticed that the other Double Yellow in the cage with "Goldey" seemed at the time to be fine, and I went to the cage where our Blue Front "Ollie" was and found her in distress. After picking "Ollie" up she died the same horrible death as the other two within 10 minutes. Within 30 seconds, I heard the horrible cry of our last bird, "Casey" also a Double Yellow as he fell to the floor. Within 5 minutes Casey was gone also. Need I tell you that my wife Lisa and I are devastated. This after having lost our 5th bird, a Double Yellow "Harley" to cancer in February of this year. Not a good year for us.

The reason for my email to you is two fold. One, we would like to know the cost of the birds if we were to buy them today, and second we want to make sure that everyone seeking to buy a GE Profile combination microwave/convection oven not do so until GE has addressed what toxins have been emitted taking the lives of our birds.

Thank you for any cost information you will provide. When we have weathered the grief of this days events, we will most likely be coming to your store bird hunting.

Also, we have been in contact with GE and they so far are reacting in what we think is a responsible manner to address what has happened here.
Thank you.

PLEASE POST THIS WHEREVER POSSIBLE. It is quite apparent that the death of these birds was due to this oven. There were no warnings contained anywhere on the oven. that is the most heart breaking story I've ever read, I'm so sorry for your loss.

[rob]

hi, I'm new just today, full name is robin. this is the saddest story I've ever read. I'm so sorry for and your wife.it wasn't her fault. thank you for the warning on GEspread the woed as far as you can. they can fly free in bird heaven now. again, I'm so sorry. I'll be throwing mine away glad I didn't use it. you saved my lovebirds.I will never use it. your a life saver good bye. Rob

[Bill's Birds]

Our condolences, as well. What an unimaginable horror to go through! Know that ALL of us feel so bad for you both.:(

[addiesmom]

What a horrific story. i am so very sorry that grief has shadowed your doorstep ..my condolences .... many blessings to you both that better times come your way.

[AiSell]

Your family story is so so sad :very_sad: God Bless you all