# caught a Cockatoo today and then caused a fight...with the humans .



## Ozkar (Jul 4, 2011)

The dogs had an interesting walk this morning. We went to a new park that we had not been to before. It had several flocks of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos over the mown grass feeding. Normally the cockatoos will fly away well before the dogs get to them. SO normally I just let them chase.

However this morning, in one of the flocks, there was an injured cockatoo. It unfortunately, could not fly away and Astro picked it up to bring back to me. It was at this stage, still alive. All the while this is happening a good 200 metres from me, as they had run across the field to chase them. There were several people walking along the path not 15 metres from where this flock was. 

So naturally, all these people start yelling and screaming at me and the dogs. There was not a great deal I could do from there. The dogs had locked onto this bird and nothing, not even me, was going to stop them. I ran and called to feign an attempt to stop them, but I knew it was fruitless, as the bird would die from heart failure before I could get to it. Cockatoos are a bit iffy in the heart when stressed and often keel over from fright. 

Zsa Zsa ever the opportunist, stole the bird from Astro's mouth and then made sure it was dead with a quick flick of the head. Then she proudly brought it back to me. 


I then had about 8 people come and surround me and start having a go at me and the dogs. The facts were, that this bird had been attacked by a cat or possum and had all it's tail feathers missing already. Hence why it could not fly away. But, these people got really upset and were abusing me. There were 5 females and 3 males. One of the males started to get aggressive towards me. Then another joined in and then another. In the end, these three guys started threatening me. I was a little surprised by this. Fair enough, speak your mind, let me know how you feel about my dogs attacking an injured bird, but to start issuing threats I thought was a little uncalled for. 

As all this was happening, the dogs started seeing that i was being surrounded by these three guys. First Ozkar started with the barking and pretty soon all three of them were standing in front of me, barking at anyone who took a step towards me.  Clever dogs. 

I explained very clearly to the three guys, that I was feeling threatened and my dogs can sense it and if they do not back off, they will have me and three very angry dogs to deal with. One thought he would take those odds and took a swing at me. I was more shocked. This is in a quite respectable area of Melbourne and I am being issued physical threats by a park walker???? I think the world is a little too serious??? 

Long story short, I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. I was kicked to the curb at 15 to fend for myself. I learnt a thing or two about living on the streets during that time. So I sat the stupid prick on his arse. He's lucky I didn't go postal on him and put him in the hospital. If he had not dropped to the ground after the first punch, he certainly would have ended up there, as if I am provoked, I normally won't stop until they stop moving. I have been caught before where I thought I had things under control, only for them for get up and nail me. So I normally won;t stop until I am sure they won't get back up. 

The other two were thinking about it till I turned on them and then they hightailed it. The women then wanted to have a go. I simply stated that I would allow the dogs to defend me. They were not as confident with the dogs not fighting back as with me. (I would never hit a female regardless) So they also took off after their men. Facts are the dogs would never bite someone, but it's a great threat  

Anyways the dogs were very proud of their achievments this morning, as was I! 

I am just a little miffed that there are still people around who would want to enter into physical confrontation in a park were people are relaxing? I guess that's the world we live in. 

Disclaimer: I have never started a fight and avoid one if at all possible. I hate it. But, when push comes to shove, there are times where you have no choice. This was one of those cases. Normally I just walk away. But, with a circle of three I was intimidated and once they started to come around behind me, I knew they were eventually going to have a crack at me. So I did what I knew I had to. Nothing more. 

Naturally, with all the excitement, I neglected to get a pic of Astro or Zsa Zsa proudly holding their prize


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## born36 (Jun 28, 2011)

Wow! I am sorry but these people must know nothing about dogs. How can they be mad at your pups for taking a bird. That is what they were created to do!!! 

It amounts to yelling a cat for killing a mouse. Would they ever??? I think not. How is this any different.


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## Suliko (Sep 17, 2011)

What the **** is wrong with adult people? I will never understand fighting especially three against one? How brave!  I'm glad it all ended good, and dogs still got some enjoyment out of the walk. Did you get hurt? Are you OK? The guy did swing at you as I understand.

Sophie once brought me a turtle  Didn't really know what to make of it...but good girl!


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## Kobi (Oct 26, 2010)

Glad you're okay and that the dogs were there to protect you. I can't believe the people would get so riled up over a bird. Yes, it's unfortunate, but it's not like you sent the dogs out there to kill all the birds :


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## redbirddog (Apr 23, 2010)

Now that makes a great blog post. You don't really have to try so hard to create interesting stories but they are enjoyable. 8)

Glad you are ok. Dogs will be dogs. Jerks will be jerks.

Assertive not aggressive. 

RBD


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## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

How awful... Hope you are okay, Ozkar (and the dogs, as well). Those people!! What a ridiculous reaction to a natural event.


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## R E McCraith (Nov 24, 2011)

Good things V's do growup-saddly most people do not-thank god you did not have a tiger off lead-that would have been interesting!


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## GoolsbyMD (Jan 29, 2012)

Sounds as if you carried it out correctly. I normally conceal carry just in case something like this happens, even though you never draw on someone unless your life is threatened. Perhaps mace or sounds like your fist are good enough. I never underestimate a group on people that jump to conclusions.


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## hobbsy1010 (Jun 4, 2011)

Ozkar,

Well done 'my son', stood your ground and your dogs did you proud and backed you up.
A friend of ours has had a similar altercation over a grey squirrel!!

We are in the middle of a applying for our visa's to emigrate to Aus
(Tasmania actually) so it's good to know how the 'natives' might treat us!!!

Hobbsy


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## harrigab (Aug 21, 2011)

I wonder how they'd feel if somebody had been recording the whole incident and then played it back to them? Plonkers all eight of them! Well done for standing your ground


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## Ozkar (Jul 4, 2011)

I will try to answer the questions without multiple quotes. 

Harrigab- that's evidence  I don't like evidence  It can be misused 

Hobbsy- You becoming a Taswegian (Colloquial term for a Tasmanian) mate??? Gets bloody cold down that neck of the woods. Bring your winter woollies. Good luck with getting the dogs over. It's going to be tough for them as they have to spend a fair amount of time in quarantine. I know it's not 6 months like it used to be, but it's still a bloody long time for them. I hope they cope well. If I get back down to Tassie to hang a Lap on the bike or in the car with the dogs perhaps this time, I will PM and see if you want to catch up. I'm in Melbourne which is only an overnight Ferry trip with the car, or a 50 minutes on a plane. 

Goolsby- mmmm not the sort of thing we are encouraged to carry around here in Oz. We have very tight weapon controls on all sorts of stuff, not just firearms. If you got caught using a weapon on anyone, it is considered to be a planned event by the courts, otherwise, why would you have it? That's the way they think??? 

REM- You crack me up   I love not only deciphering your posts, but the giggle I get when I do!! 

Mswhipple- Yep, dogs are fine and I'm fine. The idiot was slow, obvious and had no power in his swing. I could have read the newspaper before it got near me. It's why I couldn't work out what was going on. I can read the play reasonably well and did not pick this guy as an aggressor, just a self righteous tosser. So I was a little surprised he did. But, the only thing that hurts on me is my knuckles where I clocked him   I'm just glad they were all very untrained and very inexperienced. 3 to 1 isn't fantastic odds even if you play dirty 

RBD- No mention of that on the blog! Evidence!  

Kobi- I kind of get why they got worked up. The Sulphur Crested is a bit of a national symbol. People get a bit precious about them. They are also a very intelligent and long living bird. Often outlive their owners. I was very sad to be honest. I have had these birds as pets growing up and they are an amazing creature. But, this one was toast and if it wasn't my dogs it would have been a cat or something else which ate it. At least it only died from fright 

Suliko- Yeah, he had a crack. Read my reply to Miswhipple  Astro found a turtle for me once too. That just reminds me, they found an Echidna last evening. I took a crappy mobile phone pic, I'll load it when I remember and you can strain your eyes looking at it. They bury themselves into terra firma so well, that not a dog nor a human could dig them out without a decent pick and shovel. I tried to get a stick under this thing and flip it over, so I could pick it up to show the dogs, but I could not budge it.  They are a really cute little creature. You can pick them up from underneath where they have no spines. 

Born- Read about our National Symbol above


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## hobbsy1010 (Jun 4, 2011)

Hi Mate,

Will keep you posted regarding our visa 'journey', it would be great to eventually meet up when we get settled over there.
I'm a Carpenter/ builder by trade and we've got our eye on a few building plots with acreage in the countryside so who knows!!

We won't let the weather get to us too much, here in Wales (UK) today it was -1 first thing and bit cold for our brickies to start laying bricks on the job until it warmed up a bit (freezing the cement)!!

We've just had a quote from a company here in UK to take care of our Brook regarding getting him out there door to door and quarantine (Sydney) for 4 weeks all injections and papers, wait for it....$4,154 Aud (£2,800 Bp)!!
We are seriously thinking of getting another pup, a bitch to take out there with us and company for Brook this bumps the price up to $7,414 Aud (5,000)
There is a breeder who moved out there (Hagley, Tas) about three years ago Called Kenzo Vizsla's and we've spoken to her a few times and she says our Boy with all his 'Bits' intact would be quite desirable as a fresh blood line for breeding, this may go some way to help pay for his 'TAXI FARE' out there!!
This is something we would like to do, if we can get the right parcel of land we're looking for.

Hobbsy


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## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

Ozkar

Try as hard as we might, we can't train all of the instinct out of our dogs, and sometimes things like this happen. 
People just don't understand, or want to remember that their own domestic pets have also killed/crippled wild birds and animals. For some reason it's okay for a cat to kill songbirds at a feeder, but not for a dog to do the same.


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

The bird would have died a slow death being it was already injured. The dogs did it a favor. Glad you stood up for yourself and it didn't escalate any farther.


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## anne_wilcrest (Oct 20, 2011)

i love that your dogs could act (at least somewhat :/) as an intermediary - who knew a barking dog could be such a diplomat?
@texasred - fair point!


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