Someone Stole My Best Silkie Hen At a Show Today :(

[Majestic Lane Poultry]

Quote:
Demand to file a report. It's your right. Property was stolen from you. Show birds can be expensive.

If you don't have one already...I would ask George for a bill of sale. Larceny is still a crime

 

[kees]

Wow! That's pretty low. I hope that you find Betty soon.

Suzy

 

[Funky Feathers]

Is there anyone on here that is going to the Susquehanna Show on March 22nd who can look around at the Splash Silkies and help me find "Betty"??? Please?

 

[lichick28]

I just read that there will be tailgate sale of birds in the parking lot at that show. I feel so helpless, I wish I could do something. I'm so sorry

 

[kees]

Is it possible to get videocameras installed at each show? Also, if ID were required to enter and all exits were monitored, this might deter thefts.

Suzy

 

[Funky Feathers]

I wish! If we could only be so lucky. It's every person for themselves, I'm afraid.

 

[Pathfinders]

Quote:
We keep our large fowl in a coop up by the road that is securely locked at night. The coop has windows, over which we bolted hardware cloth to keep the raccoons out (who could rip right through a regular screen.)

Several years ago we had birds stolen out of that coop. The people who did it brought wire cutters and cut through the hardware cloth, climbed through the window, and stole our birds. I lost an extremely valuable cock bird that I never recovered.

After that my husband installed window bars on the inside of the coop. It amazes me that we had to go to such lengths.

IRT shows, I don't know what the answer is except to make sure someone is watching your birds near the end of the show. When we show, at the end I have my two daughters keep a close eye on the birds I'm not actively cooping out. We have small padlocks we put on the Silkie cages, and routinely zip tie everything else. We also zip tie the cages to other cages on each side, so if someone lifts up a cage to take a bird, it's more than one bird that can come loose, which might attract more attention. As well, we put a zip tie on the back of the cage, so it can't be opened from the top.

I don't know what the answer is. Wing bands are a good idea, but are based on the thought that the stolen bird will show up again, which I think is not likely. I would imagine stolen birds get taken home and bred to, so even one with a microchip or wing band wouldn't be identified.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Every show is put on independently by the club sponsoring the show, so even if one show installed security cameras, it would not be universal.

One idea I recently proposed in a discussion on this topic elsewhere was to bring cage wire (1x1, 1x2, 1/2x1, etc) in approzimately the size of show cages and wire tie them to the bottom of the cages--at least then the cages can't simply be lifted off easily, and the effort to do so would certainly attract attention. I imagine that any roosters disturbed with the effort might make quite a commotion.

 

[Cara]

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Could you mail flyers to the organizers? I'm sure they want to stamp this out as badly as everyone else, and then you'd have more people looking for her (and fewer outlets for the thief to sell her).

Just a crazy thought, but if you find your stolen bird and there is a question of identity, would DNA testing be a possibility?

Another thought, as a deterrent, could you put a little sign on the cage declaring 'I Am Microchipped' or perhaps DNA typed? I do that with all of our dogs' tags, just in case someone ever found one of them and decided to keep them, or could not contact us for some reason.

 

[speckledhen]

Quote:
Demand to file a report. It's your right. Property was stolen from you. Show birds can be expensive.

If you don't have one already...I would ask George for a bill of sale. Larceny is still a crime

They can get off their behinds and do their jobs, IMO. If it was a prize racehorse or a show dog, they'd be all over it.