Parrots Down Under

A New South Wales, Australia, court has ordered a veterinarian to pay A$12,300 in damages to a bird collector in a malpractice suit. The suit alleged that the vet, while treating a parrot for a broken right leg, ended up also breaking the bird’s left leg, leaving him incapable of breeding. Meanwhile, a Western Australian man was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty in a plot to swindle people into believing he was selling them rare Indian ringneck parrots, worth about $5,500 each. What the customers actually got were plain old green parrots, painted reddish brown with hair dye. (AP) ...The scheme was discovered when one of the birds squawked.