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LONDON — A British zoo has separated five foul-mouthed parrots who keepers say have been encouraging one another to swear. Billy, Eric, Tyson, Jade and Elsie joined Lincolnshire Wildlife Centre’s colony of 200 gray parrots in August, and soon revealed a penchant for blue language. “We are quite used to parrots swearing, but we’ve never had five at the same time,” said the zoo’s chief executive, Steve Nichols. “Most parrots clam up outside, but for some reason these five relish it.”

The RED HEN 11 hrs · THE RED HEN IN SWEDESBORO, NEW JERSEY IS IN NO WAY AFFILIATED WITH THE RED HEN IN VIRGINIA. We are an independent, family owned business who happens to share the same name. Kindly check your facts before you erroneously defame an innocent business on Facebook in an attempt to destroy their business where they welcome all, irrespective of their race, religion, views or opinions. Wishing all a safe and happy weekend!

It’s reviled by city slickers, but revered by chefs. A vintage postcard of a pigeon plant. Wikimedia Commons ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Brobson Lutz remembers his first squab with perfect clarity. It was the 1970s at the now-closed French restaurant Lutèce in New York City. “I came from North Alabama where there was a lot of dove and quail hunting and I knew how tasty little birds were,” the fast-talking Southerner recalls. “I’m not even sure if I knew then if it was a baby pigeon or not. But I became enamored with them.” When he returned home, however, the New Orleans-based physician...

An explosion on Monday rocked the suburban Atlanta home of a man known for his fight to keep chickens on his property, and emergency officials say a body was found inside. Marshals had been on the scene for about two hours trying to evict Andrew Wordes, who's known as the "Chicken Man," when the explosion happened around 12:45 p.m., said Antonio Johnson of the Fulton County marshal's office. Minutes before the explosion, Wordes told them to leave the property that was in foreclosure. Other than the body found inside the house, which officials did not immediately identify, no one was...

Editor: They've done quite a job on the Catholic Church already. Does anyone remember when Richard Nixon discussed one of the redeeming features of the Soviet Union as being its antipathy of homosexuals when he was talking in his office about Archie Bunker, said exactly the same thing? [Warning, fowl language, blasphemy] At first he starts demurring, saying he has no moral objections to homosexuality, then goes on to say that the immorality actually destroys societies. It's also interesting that Nixon's off-color comments are made much of when figures like Gandhi and Voltaire get away with it. Of course, apologists...

Rabbi Aviner sends SPCA Israel letter, video explaining why according to halacha it is wrong to use chickens in pre-Kippur atonement rite. The Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel has received a significant halachic backing for this year’s annual campaign against the cruel use of chickens in the kapparot (atonement) ritual. Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, head of the capital’s Yeshivat Ateret Cohanim and rabbi of Beit El, not only provided SPCA Israel with a letter last week showing the faultiness of the rite, basing his arguments on some of the greatest arbitrators, but went on video to expound...

HORIZON CITY, Texas, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Two Texas men said they have a prime suspect in the slayings of 30 chickens on their property, El Chupacabras. Cesar Garcia of Horizon City, Texas, said he found 20 chickens dead and drained of their blood Saturday morning and his brother-in-law, Juan Miranda, found 10 chickens killed the same way in a different coop Sunday morning, the El Paso (Texas) Times reported Wednesday. "I saw the chickens were dead, but there was no blood around the sheet metal," Garcia said. "All of them were just dead in one big pile. But, really,...

FRUITA, Colo. – Recession. Unemployment. Swine flu. Now's the time for an inspiring story about one headless chicken's will to live. Residents of Fruita, a western Colorado town of 11,000, are holding their 12th annual festival this weekend for a chicken named Miracle Mike who, according to legend, lived 18 months after a farmer lopped off his head with an ax but left his brain stem, a jugular vein and one ear intact.

Over 1,000 mallard ducks die in Idaho By JESSE HARLAN ALDERMAN, Associated Press Writer Wed Dec 13, 7:37 PM ET BOISE, Idaho - More than 1,000 mallard ducks have died along a single creek in southern Idaho, and officials on Wednesday tested tissue samples to find out why. ADVERTISEMENT The symptoms — lesions in the lungs and hemorrhaging in the heart wall — likely point to a bacterial infection, not avian flu, said Dave Parrish, regional supervisor for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. State wildlife biologists and U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigators were not ruling out any...

Key West orders signature feral fowl off its streets Wed Apr 19, 3:13 PM ET MIAMI (AFP) - Fearing they could represent a potential bird flu threat, the Florida town of Key West has ordered the famous feral chickens that wander its streets to the coop, authorities said. The US island town, known for a live-and-let-live attitude, in this case got a bit firm, and late Tuesday ordered the more than 2,000 birds removed from public places, such as parks and streets. "Key West has many uncooped roosters and chickens, many of which could become a transmission source of the...

happy turkey day everyone May all your future Thanksgivings be imperiled by neither foul... nor fowl.

US scientist says ducks play a key role in evolution of deadly disease The highly pathogenic bird-flu virus most likely exists in ducks in a benign form and might evolve to become a pandemic, a visiting American virus expert warned yesterday. Robert G Webster, a virus expert from St Jude Children’s Research Hospital Department of Infectious Diseases in Memphis, warned regional officials to keep ducks away from other potential sources of the killer flu virus. His warning came a day after the prime minister rejected a Cabinet proposal put by Deputy PM Chaturon Chaisang for the government to buy up...

US chicken exports rise as Asian bird flu spreads (Reuters) By K.T. Arasu U.S. chicken exports to Asia have begun rising to fill a supply gap as a bird flu virus strikes down millions of chickens from Pakistan to Japan, industry sources said on Monday. The chicken sales come at a time when the $3.2 billion U.S. beef export sector remains locked down after top importers like Japan banned beef from the United States, following the first U.S. case of mad cow disease, disclosed on Dec. 23. Thailand, the world's fourth-largest poultry exporter, has been hit hard by the virus,...

<p>One of Washington´s big guns is stalking the Rolling Rock Club game preserve in Ligonier Township today, taking a day off his vice presidential duties to shoot a few ducks and pheasants.</p> <p>For the second time in two years, Dick Cheney arrived at daybreak at Arnold Palmer Airport in Latrobe. Air traffic halted briefly at about 7 a.m. as Air Force 2 landed and Cheney´s security detail drove him and his favorite shotgun away to the exclusive country club.</p>

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. LONDON (Reuters) - The British government declared open season on the ruddy duck on Monday, saying it wanted to wipe out the sexually voracious fowl. Originally from North America, the ruddy duck was introduced to Britain in the 1940s and began breeding like wildfire. Now it has gained a foothold on mainland Europe, cross-breeding with the native white-headed duck and threatening it as a species, particularly in Spain. A report for the government suggested the ruddy duck could be removed from Britain within a decade and that shooting was the most...

As the waterfowl season continues to roll out with Saturday’s duck opener, hunters have more to worry about than filling a limit; that much is certain.The extent to which hunters should worry about West Nile virus, a mosquito-borne illness, is less clear."I can say that we don’t know," said Emi Saito, West Nile surveillance coordinator at the National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) in Madison, Wisconsin. "But the risk to them isn’t all that great."West Nile virus causes flu-like symptoms in mild cases. At its worst, it can cause inflammation of the brain. People over 50 have the highest risk of...

Date: Posted 8/6/2002 "Fowl-Howl" Ties Discovered Between Birds, Monkeys TUCSON, ARIZ. -- A strong and unexpected correlation between large numbers of howler monkeys and elevated counts of birds on islands created by a Venezuelan hydroelectric project has Duke University scientists looking for explanations. They say their discovery represents a prime example of the unexpected ecological insights that the science all-too-often yields. The scientists' working hypothesis is that excess plant-eating monkeys found on some of the smallest islands counterintuitively spur extra tree growth, which in turn boosts populations of insects that then attract all those birds, Duke investigator Kenneth Feeley reported...