FOR THE BIRDS TAKING CARE WITH HER FEATHERED FRIENDS.Byline: Amy Raisin Staff Writer CANYON COUNTRY - It all started 22 years ago when Jami Kennedy refused to let anyone else do her hair while her stylist was on maternity leave maternity leave n → baja por maternidad maternity leave maternity n → congé m de maternité maternity leave maternity n . A trip to her stylist's home and a chance encounter with a mean, green parrot named Enid sparked a fascination with birds that steered the Kennedys from the plumbing business to founding Golden Oak Aviaries, where they breed colorful cockatoos, macaws and other exotic birds The Exotic Birds was a pop music group formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1983 by three Cleveland Institute of Music percussion students, Andy Kubiszewski, Tom Freer and Tim Adams. They wrote their own music and were described as synth pop, techno-pop and techno-dance. . ``They had this green parrot, and they wanted to get rid of it. We gave them some plumbing parts; they gave us the parrot,'' Kennedy said Saturday outside her Canyon Country home and 250-bird aviary aviary Structure for keeping captive birds, usually spacious enough for the aviculturist to enter. Aviaries range from small enclosures to large flight cages 100 ft (30 m) or more long and up to 50 ft (15 m) high. Enclosures for birds that fly only little or weakly (e.g. . ``We still have Enid. My husband tried to tame it and got bit and bloody. But she still has a baby about every four years.'' Not so long ago, Jami and Bob Kennedy This article is about the baseball player; for the runner, see Bob Kennedy (runner) Robert Daniel Kennedy (August 18, 1920 - April 7, 2005) was a right fielder/third baseman, manager and executive in Major League Baseball. welcomed Girl Scout troops and students to tour their impressive collection of birds - many bred in their aviary and hand-fed before eventually hatching their own offspring. But the recent outbreak of the deadly exotic Newcastle disease Newcastle disease, pneumoencephalitis, acute viral disease of domestic poultry. Newcastle disease is characterized by sneezing, coughing, and nervous behavior. Affected birds may show tremors, circling, falling, twisting of the head and neck, or complete paralysis. in California has forced drastic changes. At Golden Oak Aviaries, where the Kennedys also offer wholesale bird food and other supplies, customers are no longer permitted on the property. While the disease poses no threat to humans, it is highly contagious among birds and includes symptoms like sneezing To verbally tell somebody about a new and interesting Web site. See viral marketing. , coughing, nasal discharge, swelling around the eyes and neck and sudden death. Because exotic Newcastle can be spread on the soles of shoes, Golden Oak Aviaries has adopted near fanatical practices designed to protect its flock. ``We have a foot bath before you go inside the aviary, filled with disinfectant,'' Kennedy said. ``Only me, my husband and our bird feeder bird feeder also bird·feed·er n. An outdoor container for bird feed, used to attract wild birds. Noun 1. bird feeder - an outdoor device that supplies food for wild birds birdfeeder, feeder are allowed in, period. And we do the foot bath again when we leave the aviary. Responsible breeders are trying to be very aware of their birds.'' Kennedy, the Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, state coordinator of the American Federation of Aviculturists, estimates nearly 4 million birds, including poultry, have been destroyed since the outbreak was first reported last fall. Nearly 13,000 properties have been quarantined across California since then, while signs of the disease have surfaced in Arizona and Nevada. Kennedy and her husband never enter pet shops or bird-food supply facilities for fear of tracking the disease back to their canyon compound. All they can do, she said, is continue to nurture their birds and feed them the types of meals that allow the birds to live 60 years, instead of the average five years of those birds kept as pets in people's homes. ``We had one 75 years old, and she was still making babies,'' said Kennedy, a full-time fund-raiser for the United Way. ``People think you're just supposed to feed birds seeds, and that's it. ``They need vegetables, fruits. They love apples and melons. We give them cooked meats, cheeses, pasta. ``We really only sell to stores and other breeders. When you sell a bird you have to make sure the person is responsible,'' she said. ``We wash their bowls with (bleach) every day. It really does take that kind of commitment.'' CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- color) Rio, Jami Kennedy's scarlet macaw The Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) is a large, colourful parrot. It is native to humid evergreen forests in the American tropics, from extreme eastern Mexico locally to Amazonian Peru and Brazil, in lowlands up to 500 meters (at least formerly up to 1000m). , leans in for some face time at Kennedy's Santa Clarita Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, home. Most of Kennedy's 250 birds have been quarantined against Newcastle disease. (2 -- colro) Kennedy, with Inspector, an umbrella cockatoo: ``Responsible breeders are trying to be very aware of their birds.'' (3) Kennedy watches as Rio, her scarlet macaw, does some mountaineering outside its cage. Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion