Animal activists’ ‘rescue’ of caged bird goes horribly wrong

Two animal activists thought they were doing the world a favour by sneaking into a home and releasing a caged bird. But it ended in disaster.

A seasoned veterinary nurse has hit out at the “despicable” actions of two animal rights activists who snuck into her mother’s home to “rescue” a caged bird — which was then fatally mauled by a cat.

Georgia Rowe, a Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service volunteer from Mosman on Sydney’s north shore, wrote a lengthy post for the Mosman Daily Facebook page saying she had been in the UK visiting “old and unwell relatives” when the pair struck.

She wrote that on Saturday, at about 9.30am, the pair — a young woman and a man, according to a neighbour’s description — entered the home via two locked gates.

The rainbow lorikeet was a non-releasable rescue bird. Picture: Mosman Daily/Facebook

It was then that the activists stole her non-releasable rescue rainbow lorikeet from his outdoor cage in a back courtyard.

“They ‘released’ him into Memory Park down the road where he was mauled by a cat,” she wrote. “He was brought into Mosman Vet by a kind soul, and swiftly euthanised due to his severe injuries.”

She believes the shocking incident is a “targeted theft” as the bird is very quiet, mostly free roaming inside, not visible from the street, and closely guarded by a dog who is nearly always home.

“We believe this likely a local neighbour who took offence to his being ‘caged’,” she wrote. “This bird was a beloved pet who had many more years of bliss ahead of him. I only took him home from the vet clinic I work at in March and words cannot express how much he will be missed.”

She said the incident had left her “devastated beyond words”.

Ms Rowe was away in the UK when the bird was targeted. Picture: Mosman Daily/Facebook

“I have seen some despicable things, but I am beyond horrified at a recent event, made infinitely worse by my location in the UK to visit old and unwell relatives,” she wrote.

“The police were called and said that there have been a number of other similar cases of people ‘rescuing’ and releasing vulnerable and compromised animals — typically wildlife either in care or non-releasable and adopted.

“There is a reward offered for any information that assists in identifying the culprits and holding them accountable for their horrendous misconception of animal rights and their pathetic attempt at ‘rescuing’.”

Originally published as Animal activists’ ‘rescue’ of caged bird goes horribly wrong