Ruling returns seized birds
Experts say the birds are healthy and the mess is normal during breeding times.
ST. PETERSBURG - The house appeared filthy at first glance, a pandemonium of feathers and dust.
Lynn Andrews, a licensed bird breeder, owned 101 birds mostly cockatiels, two dogs, two turtles and a rabbit. A deputy who looked through her home in September after a neighbor complained about barking dogs said it was "infested" with roaches and flies, and that the cages seemed like they were "overcrowded" and "hadn't been cleaned in over a month."
The local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals seized the birds and pets and said they were sickly. Andrews, 48, and her friend, Cheryl Sawyer, 43, faced animal cruelty charges.
But first impressions can be deceiving. Especially when it comes to bird breeders during breeding season.
Authorities have dropped the animal cruelty charges. On Dec. 13, Judge Dorothy Vaccaro ordered the SPCA to return the birds to Andrews, who lives at 3950 56th Ave. N in the Lealman area.
The reason: Experts, including several avian specialists, testified that the birds were perfectly healthy and robust.
Why? Because one of the keys to breeding birds is to give them some privacy. As R. Michael Robinson, an attorney for Andrews, put it: "The breeding situation the birds were in is not uncommon."
As a student at New Port Richey's Gulf High, Andrews says she was "fascinated by genetics." She's been breeding birds, mostly cockatiels, for more than 30 years and belongs to the American Cockatiel Society.
But breeding glamorous cockatiels can be messy. Multiple birds housed in cages often chew on each other's feathers. And breeders like Andrews try not to walk in on the birds, which don't like spectators when they mate any more than people do. As a result, dust and droppings sometimes accumulate.
When Andrews left town for a bird convention near Jacksonville this September, she asked her friend Sawyer to check on the birds. But Sawyer had the flu, and didn't check up on the birds often because she didn't want to infect them.
Investigators found a scene they said required the birds to be seized: 25 birds in one cage in the living room. Andrews later said she was keeping them together in a big cage because she was selling them.
The rest of the birds were housed mostly two to a cage in dozens of cages in another room.
But after listening to experts such as Fred Smith, a 32-year bird breeder, Vaccaro ruled the birds should be returned to Andrews. Experts said that such conditions are normal during breeding.
Vaccaro also expressed concern about the living conditions at Andrews' home and recommended state officials do spot checks.
Robinson, Andrews' attorney, said he was pleased with the judge's decision.
Andrews was glad to get her birds back, but said that several have died and many others lost a lot of weight. She said she'll have to keep her birds quarantined for months because she's nervous about diseases.
"I'm angry about the whole thing," she said.
Beth Lockwood, the executive director for the local SPCA, said her organization had hoped to keep the birds.