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Beware of long necked birds

(9 Posts)
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vampirequeen Tue 23-Jul-13 12:23:33

Oh dear I've repeated myself ....new meds lol

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vampirequeen Tue 23-Jul-13 12:22:36

It was the small zoo at Sewerby near Bridlington. DD contacted the owners (the local council) and they have told her they are going to put a double fence in so that the bird can't get so close to the path.

DD contacted the owners (the local council) who said they would put up a new fence asap.

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Movedalot Tue 23-Jul-13 11:12:52

VQ tell us which zoo it was so we can boycott it. I think that is appalling. How old is she? I think we have a right to know that such places are safe to take small children.

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ninathenana Tue 23-Jul-13 10:11:59

Awful !
I hope she recovers soon and that the trauma doesn't put her off birds for life bless her.
I'd certainly want action from the zoo.

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kittylester Tue 23-Jul-13 09:28:01

That's awful Vampire

DS1 had a free-flying parrot at Twycross Zoo attack his eye when he was about 5. When we complained Molly Badham, who owned the zoo and provided the Brooke Bond chimps, told us that it was alright the parrot obviously thought he was a rival. angry

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janeainsworth Tue 23-Jul-13 09:20:11

How dreadful, vq - I hope your DGD recovers well, but it may take some time. Thank goodness her eye wasn't damaged.

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Aka Tue 23-Jul-13 09:16:43

That is disgraceful and unacceptable Vampire and the zoo is at fault. Of course they had noticed the bird had grown, don't they feed it every day? I trust measures have been put in place so no other child suffers like your little GD. It could have taken her eye out.
I wish her a complete recovery.

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annodomini Tue 23-Jul-13 09:01:37

Poor little girl. This could put her right off visiting zoos. And it must have been quite scary for you vq.

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vampirequeen Tue 23-Jul-13 08:50:03

Last week my DD2 took DGD aged 4 to a local attraction which has a small zoo attached. It's got the usual 'safe' animals and birds like wallabies and penguins which children love to see. It also has a couple of rheas. These birds are a bit like a small ostrich so have very long necks.

www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1438&bih=708&q=rhea&oq=rhea&gs_l=img.12...0.0.0.4459.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1ac..21.img.pJtJnBkmn1c#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=gXGX166BXQ7kKM%3A%3BEShe8Pln-kZN-M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.jdmpics.com%252Fanimals%252Frhea-2.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.jdmpics.com%252Frhea-2.htm%3B378%3B305

DGD was standing on the path looking at the bird when it reached over the fence and pecked her face just below her eye. Apparently the bird had grown since the fence had been built and no one realised it could now reach over. DGD was quite badly injured and ended up in A&E where they had to scan her eye to make sure that the force of the blow hadn't damaged it internally from underneath. She also had to be x-rayed to check that her facial bones were still intact. Then they had to clean the wound which had been bleeding heavily. Finally after much discussion between the doctors who, understandably, had never had to deal with a rhea attack before it was decided to treat it as a dog bite and put her on strong antibiotics just in case.

I thought I'd post this story as many of us at this time of year will be taking our DGC to places that have small zoos attached and I wanted you to be extra aware.

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