Warwick woman accused of training pet bird to swear at ex-husband's new girlfriend

Providence Journal ^ | September 7, 2012 | Mike McKinney

[ConservativeStatement]

WARWICK, R.I. -- A year-long dispute has landed two neighbors in court.

At issue: Willy's the cockatoo's salty language.

In court documents, Kathleen Melker of 55 Harris Ave. asserts she was within earshot of Willy, her neighbor's pet, when he repeatedly called her "whore." The incident, she says, punctuated an acrimonious relationship with Lynne Taylor of 51 Harris Ave. that she says included Taylor pelting rocks over the fence and threats to capture Melker's cat and "drown it in the Bay." No charges have been filed.

[Boogieman]

There’s not a lot of detail in this story. What I want to know is, who in their right mind divorces a woman and then continues to live next door to her? Talk about asking for trouble.

[Docbarleypop]

shivering Parrot “pardon my previous language, and by the way, what did the chicken do?”

[HHFi]

My wife and I take in homeless, handicapped and abused exotic birds. We currently have 15, including two cockatoos (they aren’t very good talkers, BTW).

While this story seems funny on the surface, I would urge anyone who has a parrot to PLEASE DO NOT TEACH IT TO CURSE!

People think that’s so funny, but they don’t consider that parrots can live up to 80 years. Almost every long-lived parrot will end up needing to find a new owner at some point. Many people won’t take a bird that curses, even though the bird doesn’t know what it’s saying, it’s just repeating something it knows will get it some attention.

I have heard of people locking birds in dark closets and other punishments (which doesn’t work with parrot and is just animal cruelty) to try to make them stop cursing.

If you teach your parrot to curse, you are severely limiting its chances of finding a loving home in the future. To people like me who love parrots, it ain’t funny.

[TurboZamboni]

someone who wants to see their kids...or their bird?

[John S Mosby]

Hilarious, and difficult to prove the bird didn’t hear the word and naturally repeat it (likely said every time the woman saw the other one, and bird associated it).

Liberace once said “ I never worked with animal acts.... but I might have kissed a ......” well, you know.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Funny!

[Tax-chick]

A bird story ...

[Lazamataz]

I let my parrot see constant reruns of President Obama's speeches.

Now, all the parrot will do, is make empty promises it has no intention of keeping.

[Thud]

When my daughter went away for a weekend once when she had a pet cockatoo, her brothers put Weird Al’s “George of the Jungle” track (from his Dare To Be Stupid album) on her CD sound system on repeat for the whole weekend, hoping the bird would sing it endlessly when she came out. The bird only repeated it a few times when she came home though. I don’t know whether it stopped on its own or she somehow discouraged it from singing the song.

[martin_fierro]

In court documents, Kathleen Melker of 55 Harris Ave. asserts she was within earshot of Willy, her neighbor's pet, when he repeatedly called her "whore."

HO RLY?

[Lazamataz]

I let my parrot see constant reruns of President Obama's speeches.

Now, all the parrot will do, is make empty promises it has no intention of keeping.

[par4]

My wife has been very adament about "salty" language around our amazon. She's quite good at picking out a new word, especially if it's something quick and loud like when a frozen package of meat falls out of the freezer onto your foot (don't ask). If you just drop it and don't repeat the word it is quickly forgotten, but often repeated words (I have become a little hard of hearing in one side and tend to say "what" a lot lately) can result in some strange conversations:

Me: "Good morning - Step up"

Parrot: "What"

[Slings and Arrows]

For those trying to remember the old joke, the punchline is "Hello Keith!"

[Daffynition]

..and all this time I thought it was..."Kenneth, what is the frequency?"

[Squantos]

Ex wife and new girlfriend fighting over a cockatoo ?

Is that grammatically correct ?

[UCANSEE2]

Is that grammatically correct ?

I don't know but I have seen it happen many times on ALL STAR WRESTLING.

[UCANSEE2]

I’m not actually sure this is illegal.

What... Being a whore, or being called on it by a bird?

[GeronL]

training a bird to swear, lol

[Revolting cat!]

Birds are people, too!

[piasa]

My neighbor’s Amazon is amazing (it does a terrific jazz trumpet and clarinet.) We were at dinner when one of our hosts asked the other if he’d fed the bird. When he said “Of course I did,” the bird blurted out “LIAR!”