Michigan animal shelter inundated with parakeets in breeding plan gone wrong
An animal shelter in Michigan has been inundated with hundreds of parakeets.
The Detroit Animal Welfare Group in Romeo said in a Facebook post that the small, colorful birds were dropped off on Thursday night, the Detroit News reported.
“We were in shock also but could not turn them away as they were all crammed in seven cages and smothering each other and needed immediate help,” the shelter said in the post.
The group’s director, Kelley LeBonty, told the Detroit Free Press the son of an animal hoarder called to say he was coming to surrender 60 to 80 parakeets from his father’s house. But he showed up on Thursday with about 497 parakeets in his truck.
“His son said that he just wanted to breed a few of them and it got out of control,” LeBonty said. “The problem is birds breed easily. And then you just have more babies and more babies and more babies if you don’t control the situation.”