Molly the Magpie’s owners have done nothing wrong | David Penberthy

Just as the joyless bureaucrats back off, the owners of the beloved native bird face a new miserable twist, writes David Penberthy.

This is a story about two groups of birds. A loveable magpie rescued by a loving family and the joyless galahs who flock in the bureaucracy.

Molly the Magpie is the most popular bird in Australia.

Molly, who is actually a male bird, was rescued by Gold Coast couple Juliette Wells and Reece Mortenson when he was just a chick.

He had fallen out his nest and his mum wasn’t around to care for him. Juliette and Reece raised Molly themselves, feeding him the correct omnivorous diet and keeping him in rude health as he grew.

And as he grew, Molly developed a special bond with the family dog, Peggy the Staffordshire Terrier. The pair quickly became inseparable.

While they might be sworn enemies under other circumstances, Molly and Peggy are the best of friends.

Molly sits on Peggy’s back, they play together, have naps together.

Juliette and Reece were so taken by their friendship that they started to share the story with everyone, posting pictures and videos to Instagram and Facebook.

It wasn’t some grubby money-making scheme. They didn’t drag the baby bird from its nest with dollar signs in their eyes.

They haven’t taught the bird to smoke a cigar while wearing a red fez, although admittedly that would be pretty cool.

They simply saved an abandoned bird which became best mates with their dog, after which cuteness abounded.

The numbers speak for themselves with 1.3 million people following Molly and Peggy on Facebook and 1 million on Instagram.

Juliette Wells with her partner Reece Mortensen and Peggy, Ruby and Molly.

Call me a mush-headed sentimental fool.

But in a world where Russia is considering launching a nuclear warhead called Satan II against Ukraine, nd where Israelis and Arabs remain locked in furious argument about the post October 7 death toll, and where homeless shelters are now giving lunch to people who can’t service their mortgage, forgive me and many others for being keen on the idea of watching a magpie dance on the tummy of a Staffy.

It was all fun and games until the Queensland Department for the Environment got wind of things. Earlier this year, some – what’s the word, miserable sod perhaps – in the department decided to seize Molly on the grounds that Juliette and Reece had taken the bird unlawfully from its natural habitat and did not have a wildlife carer’s licence.

On March 1, the department’s goon squad barged in Waco-style and spirited Molly away.

In the ensuing outcry, the department relented and revised its decision, granting Juliette and Reece a modified licence to resume care of Molly, in part because he had become so domesticated he was unlikely ever to survive in the wild.

It came with the churlish proviso that they not profit from or commercialise their relationship with the bird.

It was the purest form of turbocharged pedantry, showing how a specific brand of bureaucratic joylessness can be unleashed on something that only brings people joy.

But it doesn’t end there.

An anonymous wildlife protection advocate took the Queensland Environment Department to the Supreme Court arguing the department erred in granting the modified licence. The Supreme Court agreed, and this week ruled that the licence must be overturned, with the department now trying to work out what happens next with Molly.

What an absolute load of bollocks it all is.

You would think this lovely Gold Coast couple were the latter day equivalent of a 19th century circus, roaming in the dead of night stealing animals so they can fill their tents with tethered elephants, dancing bears and tricycle-riding chimpanzees.

There seems to be some weird “thin end of the wedge” thinking within the department and by the wildlife advocates that the actions of Juliet and Reece could lead to some copycat explosion in the unauthorised rearing of native species.

Let the record show that I am a total native animal lover. Whenever a rare parrot stops a wind farm, I’m barracking for the parrot. I’ve saved a few birds in my yard, a goshawk which flew into the back window and two abandoned magpies, and took them to the appropriate rescue bodies.

And don’t get me started on cats.

I would happily see every cat in Australia sent to Springfield Ohio, where as we recently learnt they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people who live there.

Peggy and Molly the Magpie page. Picture: Facebook / Peggy and Molly.

Molly the Magpie after he was surrendered to DESI

The only thing that sounds more feral than a feral cat are the people behind this law suit in the Supreme Court.

“There is nothing cute about wings and legs bitten off by family pets,” the anonymous activist was quoted as saying.

“There is nothing cute about seeing a domesticated magpie ferociously attacked by a wild flock when they first interact.”

All of that might be true.

It also has absolutely nothing to do with what we are looking at in the case of Molly, a bird which was not “captured” but rescued, and which in a weird but welcome turn of events has befriended a dog with no intention of biting its wings off.

Juliet and Reece have been chastised for writing a photo book documenting the friendship between Molly and Peggy.

Apparently it’s a tawdry attempt to make a quid out of our fauna.

I’d see it more as a case of spreading happiness based on a completely innocent and heartwarming tale.

Maybe the bureaucrats and busybodies who’ve made their lives hell could write their own biography, an Elliot Ness-style tell-all about their dogged sleuth work fighting for a world where all magpies are safe from being shown affection and everyone is free to go back to being miserable again.

Originally published as Molly the Magpie’s owners have done nothing wrong | David Penberthy