Ok, I want to know why the average American in a city doesn’t give their sheep a ride around town? Inquiring minds want to know. Sometimes I think we here in the US are too dull, too straitjacketed living in our safe planned communities.
Here in California there has been a huge furour, well if you own birds or chickens, about the Exotic Newcastle Disease. The said avian ailment has been severely sickening, usually to death, the average 10-15 chickens per 10 sq. foot pen that the US poultry industry keeps together in close company. Needless to say the multiple billion dollar poultry industry in Calif. has pressured/lobbied/etc the State to go and clear up the disease.
Guess how they have done it? If you have a backyard chicken or even a parrot or finches in the house, and a bird in the neighborhood has gotten sick with Newcastle, then the State or County task force has been coming and killing all of the healthy birds on the block. An actor in LA recently made a big stink about this to the LA Times (note that the LA times charges for archive articles), after the Task Force folks came to get his parrot, who was not sick. And when the actor refused to have his parrot put down in the name of the poulty industry, he got a big sign on his front door that said “Bio-Hazard”. Nice.
Hello…. Maybe the poultry industry should stop packing the birds in, give them some room, a wee bit of fresh air, etc, and maybe they wouldn’t pass disease around amongst their commrades so fast. Or on the other hand maybe the average citizen could get a goat or sheep, instead of chickens, and have a built in lawnmower and fertilizer….
At my house, I would prefer a goat to the mow&blow guys, because the mow&blow guys are kicking up a lot of dust every monday and tromping in the flower beds, and have been caught twice now using weed killer spray on the flowers. Given that the landlady pays for the service, I don’t really complain to her because it would change nothing and add ill will. But it would be more fun to complain about the goat eating the flowers. Alas, due to the “No Pets” clause to the lease, I don’t think a pygmy goat is in my future.
Letter to the Ventura County Star: Task Force killing too many birds
Parrot Society of LA on how to appeal your bird’s imminent death