38 budgies die in minutes at bird show; PETS' MASS DEATH RIDDLE.Byline: HYWEL TREWYN BIRD lovers watched on in horror as 38 prize budgies keeled over and died during a show. Owners and organisers rushed to get their birds' cages outside into the fresh air as the budgerigars inexplicably fell off their perches. Some of them were worth up to a pounds 1,000 each. Fanciers feared a gas leak caused the tragedy. But after investigations by plumbers, gas workers, fire authorities and environmental health officers, there was no explanation for what happened at the village hall event in Y Felinheli, between Caernarfon and Bangor. Retired pet shop owner Dave Cottrell, 55, from Flintshire, who lost 10 birds at the show, said: "I was preparing the certificates as the birds were being put in order when a steward came over and said he had a dead one. "Then another steward came over said he had two or three dead. "And within seconds a third steward said he had more dead." Mr Cottrell, who has 200 birds and been a fancier for 35 years, thinks a boiler or oven flue could have been temporarily blocked, forcing out fumes. Robert Hughes, 34, who organised the annual Gwynedd Budgerigar budgerigar (bŭj`ərēgär'): see parakeet. Society Open Show, said: "The birds were spread across the hall. "Five minutes after the first one died 11 more had gone. One of them was mine. "We made the decision to get everything out of the hall because we had 350 cages so we saved a lot of birds." Small birds are especially vulnerable because of their small respiratory systems. Canaries were traditionally used by miners to test whether there were dangerous levels of carbon monoxide carbon monoxide, chemical compound, CO, a colorless, odorless, tasteless, extremely poisonous gas that is less dense than air under ordinary conditions. It is very slightly soluble in water and burns in air with a characteristic blue flame, producing carbon dioxide; below ground. Mr Hughes said: "Nobody in the community has seen nor heard anything like this before. The hall has been given the all clear. It's bizarre. "It takes a year to organise the show and it's a lot of work - but that's nothing compared to how you feel for some of the people who lost birds." A vet carried out checks on two casualties revealing they died from congestion The condition of a network when there is not enough bandwidth to support the current traffic load. congestion - When the offered load of a data communication path exceeds the capacity. and haemorrhaging of the lungs. Len Williams, who is a member of the Parochial Church Council The Parochial Church Council or PCC, is the executive body of a Church of England parish. It is constituted as a body corporate by the Church Representation Rules set out in Schedule 3 to the Synodical Government Measure 1969, and consists of the clergy and churchwardens of the in the village, said the hall had been closed while checks were carried out. "The hall has now been given the all-clear by health and safety, and we are now taking bookings again," he added. hyweltrewyn@dailypost.co.uk CAPTION(S): Budgie budgerigar, budgie see melopsittacus undulatus. budgerigar fledgling disease a polyomavirus infection of young psittacines that causes failure of feather growth, hepatic and renal necrosis, and sometimes death. breeder Dave Cottrell with two of his surviving birds |
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