Dear Parrots magazine,
Four stolen parrots
Over the evening of Friday the 12th of July 2019, our four parrots were stolen from Swallow Aquatics, East Harling Norfolk Store. The deputy site manager closed the doors at 6.30pm and the parrots were settling down for the evening. The following morning at 8.30 am on opening the store it was discovered the birds had been forcibly taken from their outdoor aviaries. We had two African Grey Parrots, Burt and Daisy and two Blue and Gold Macaws, Albert and Lilly.
All had been gifted to Swallow Aquatics over the years as unwanted pets or in Lilly’s case, as a bird rescued from a flat by the RSPCA. Burt, as the longest resident parrot, had lived here for more than 15 years and is a very elderly Grey at the grand age of 50, his girlfriend, Daisy, is well into her thirties and is very shy and wary of people. Both birds were wild caught, which were used for breeding in their day and retired here once their breeding days were over. I’ve personally known Burt for well over 20 years, he’s an old gentleman who would make a terrible pet and an even worse breeding bird, so I can’t really understand why someone would steal him?
The Macaws were also gifted to Swallow Aquatics. Albert is a 12 year old male who’s a bit of a delinquent, he is very demanding and pretty aggressive, so I’m surprised whoever took him didn’t get bitten, Albert has a silver closed ring with 2007 on it. Lilly is a very gentle soul who again doesn’t like people very much and is slow to acclimatise to people. She was rescued by a local RSPCA officer who found her in an abandoned flat without food or water just over a year ago.
Albert and Lilly have just had their first year outside together and they were getting along really well, following each other around, sharing food and sunbathing together. This has truly devastated the staff here, as all the animals living in our animal encounters department have ended up here as unwanted pets or rescued from unfortunate circumstances.
These birds are not worth vast sums of money and will not make good pets, and due to the great age of the Greys, will not be good for breeding either. We would just like them returned please.
Dillon, Swallow Aquatics