21 prize budgies stolen from budgie breeder...

...and the champion stamped to death.

I never knew the world of budgie breeding was so competitive.

For the link-phobic:

Quote :

On the eve of a big show, 21 of [Andrew Pooley's] prized birds had been stolen and his champion, Penmead Pride, had been stamped to death.

Police today confirmed that they were investigating the break-in at Pooley's aviary and were working on the theory that a jealous rival was the guilty party.

I doubt it wasn't malicious, considering that the thieves somehow knew exactly which one bird to kill.

Quote :

"I feel terrible. It has been my life's work... Those birds are worth the world to me. Since the attack, seven more have died just from shock, it's completely destroyed my faith in humanity."

So... that's that, then.

STAMPED TO DEATH?!?!

OH LAWDY, WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE POSTAGE!?!?!?

Seriously, there has to be a cheaper way to kill a bird. It's like 40 cents a stamp nowadays.

Dude's faith in humanity may be lost, but my faith in Mikey is never disappointed.

I had to look up what a budgie was, and it's those annoying, noisy birds that pet stores usually have 20+ of. I thought it'd be something a lot more...significant?

Still, I feel bad for the breeder. I hope they find the asshole responsible.

Oh god.
That's just fucked. The bird didn't do anything wrong, ffs.

Poor birdies... D:

Explosion kills six and a separate fire threatens Boulder, Colorado: Something about sewage and saving animals.

Some useless birds die: OH NOEZ, OH THE HUMANITY AVIANITY(sp?), OH GAWD WHY DID THIS HAPPEN!?!?!?!

You fools: Keeping you priorities very interesting since 1999.

Seule wrote:

I doubt it wasn't malicious, considering that the thieves somehow knew exactly which one bird to kill.

I think it was most likely malicious because they stole a bunch of birds and killed one of them. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

As the stolen birds were potentially worth up to several thousand pounds each, for breeding purposes, one wonders if it the Birds were "stolen to order", by a rival breeder...
It seems that Penfield Pride may been delibrately stamped to death, either because it was too recgonisable to sell, or more maliciously, to "send a message" to the breeder...