[harley1]

Originally Posted by Lucia

Hi everyone, sorry that this might be a long post but I had to tell u all how proud I am of my husband Ian. He volunteers for a bird of prey rescue centre and received a call yesterday evening from a man who had a European eagle owl that he wanted Ian to come and collect (on the phone the man claimed to have 'found' this bird!!!). When Ian arrived at the house the man had the very underweight and distressed owl in a cardboard box. When questioned where he 'found' it the man's story suddenly changed to 'A friend gave it to me'. The man said he kept other birds of prey and that his friend thought he could take good care of the owl but, he said, 'it's more trouble than it's worth'. When Ian asked what other birds he kept the guy became very aggressive and told him: 'just forget the f*****g owl and p**s off'! then slammed the door in his face. Ian was also concerned because he had seen in the man's hallway a dog in a very small cage, which looked filthy. He decided not to argue, but went back to his van and called someone from an bird protection agency that he has worked closely with in the past and explained the situation. The man came out of his house yelling at my husband so Ian drove off the man's driveway and parked up on the road outside - refusing to move. Within forty minutes two of the protection officers arrived with two policemen. From the house and garden, with my husband's help, they removed the European eagle owl, two harris hawks, and a red tailed buzzard - all kept in apalling conditions, a parrot (almost completely bald) and a cairn terrier with her two week old litter. The mother terrier was very undernourished and one of the pups was dead My hubby has spent the night helping to medicate and feed these birds, and the RSPCA has the mummy terrier and her remaining pups.The man will be prosecuted. sadly, this isnt the first case like this he has been involved with. People buy these birds because you can buy them relatively cheap (£200 or so) and you don't need a licence to keep them, they are seen by many as a status symbol without them realising the time and specialist knowledge required to care for them properly. I'm proud that he volunteers his time to something so worthy. Just thought I'd sharexxx

Your hubby does certainly rock!!!,way to go,maybe you can keep us posted on how the birds do and no doubt the mum and her pups will soon find good homes.....Well Done.