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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Farmer's bird vandalism raised birdwatchers' hopes |
| 2012-01-20 |
| BIRD watchers' hopes they had discovered a new species of hawk have been shot down after a New Zealand farmer was revealed to be spray painting the birds pinkish-red and releasing them for the lulz. In a judge's decision released this week, Grant Michael Teahan was found not to be innocent of two charges of ill-treating an animal after he defended the charges in the Dannevirke District Court in November, the Manawatu Standard reports. In early 2009, locals were mystified by the appearance of the strangely coloured hawks and sent photos of them in to the local newspaper. "Check! A graffiti hawk!" However, when one of the hawks was hit and killed by a car the spray painting was discovered. The SPCA began investigating and Teahan was uncovered when he asked his nephew to send a YouTube clip to the media, showing a man catching and shooting a magpie in a home-made trap, which was covered in pinkish-red spray paint. "It's a TRAP!" "It's also a trick." Computers seized at Teahan's Dannevirke property had files, photographs and films relating to red hawks deleted. Another file showed a cow that had been spray-painted with "Merry Christmas". Palmerston North SPCA manager Danny Auger told the Manawatu Standard it was the most bizarre case he had worked on. "Various people got involved, like experts who thought maybe it was a new strain or a new type of bird or whatever, but then feathers were being found and it was obvious somebody was actually painting these hawks." Teahan, who will be sentenced on January 30, is considering appealing his conviction. |
| Posted by:Korora |
| #5 "charges of ill-treating an animal" And who exactly interviewed the birds to find out if they felt ill-treated or not? For all the complainers and the judge know, the birds thought it was a great idea and loved having some color instead of being a boring brown. Sound species-ist to me.... |
| Posted by: Barbara 2012-01-20 18:59 |
| #4 We once had a black-headed goose.... Of course the stupid goose'es head was black headed because he dunked his head into a coffee can of old motor oil while we were taking a beer break (from changing said oil). |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2012-01-20 18:15 |
| #3 I remember a similar story about a construction worker on the Golden Gate Bridge. After every sea gull catch and release from the safety nets, he gave them a dab of read paint to see how many were the same gulls coming back - or, just for the heck of it. Excitable bird watchers began coming to see the red crested gulls that were migrating to San Fransisco for the first time ... |
| Posted by: Adriane 2012-01-20 17:40 |
| #2 Paint the Roses Red! So the SPCA now has the power to seize people's computers? What's next? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2012-01-20 16:00 |
| #1 Science works again. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2012-01-20 15:57 |