allister@rata.vuw.ac.nz (Allister J. Gorman) (02/14/91)
JAIL BIRD A screeching parrot accused of making the neighbours ill went on trial in Norway this week in an unprecidented court case which could bring it a long spell of solitary confinement. Jokko, a blue and red parrot aged about 50, kept virtually silent as a magistrate, lawyers and witnesses turned up at the bird's Oslo home for the start of the trial on Monday. The court moved to the house as it was too cold for Jokko to travel. Jokko's owner, Jan Erik Skog, denied charges that he spied on neighbours and deliberately put the parrot outside to annoy them in summer. - NZPA-Reuter. Allister J. Gorman, <allister@rata.vuw.ac.nz>
allister@rata.vuw.ac.nz (Allister J. Gorman) (02/15/91)
The continuing saga of Jokko the parrot (from 'The Evening Post', Wellington, New Zealand (still nowhere near Norway), 14th February, 1991). Penalised Jokko the parrot was sentenced to summer holidays on Wednesday after complaints that her squawking had contributed to a woman's heart attack. An Oslo, Norway, court imposed this lenient penalty on the 50-year-old bird after a neighbour complained that Jokko's squawking was like "daggers in the stomach". The neighbour said the red and blue parrot's loud screeching had contributed to his wife's heart attack and the proximity to the noisy bird had lowered the value of his house. The two sides eventually agreed that Jokko would spend every June in another part of Oslo and would travel away from home every second weekend during the summer. - NZPA-Reuter Allister J. Gorman, <allister@rata.vuw.ac.nz>