Who the hell do these people think that they are, asking us for information
about a matter that is none of their business. I wonder if they're trying to
cajole Mickaboo into divulging personal information about people involved in
a surrender, which WOULD be illegal per state privacy laws.
I must admit, the rabble-rousers involved in this case are quite adept at
subtly presenting misinformation in a way that riles up their peers. James
and his ilk state, at the beginning of their (by now, more or less canned)
message, that he and his wife had a verbal agreement that the cockatiels
would stay with him. This seems to imply that Mickaboo came in and took
them without anyone's approval or permission. In fact, Cody made
arrangements over a period of time to get these birds to Mickaboo and she
signed a legally-binding surrender agreement to that effect. They also say
that they don't want this to have to go to court, subtly implying that they
don't want to sue Mickaboo. In fact, what they mean is that they want us to
give the birds back to one of the parties without this being decided by a
judge in divorce court. (If they were really going to try to sue Mickaboo,
they'd almost certainly have done so by now, as it would make very little
sense to wait until the divorce settlement is complete, regardless of the
outcome.)
It seems to me that the "peanut gallery" on that forum is growing a bit
impatient, wondering why the participants in this case have not gone to the
police, sued Mickaboo, taken this to the media, etc. Maybe some of them are
growing to realize that all the facts of this case are not exactly as
presented by the one side doing all of the talking, or this would not be in
a holding pattern.
Last I heard, Michelle's stance on behalf of Mickaboo was that we were going
to let the court decide and that they (meaning the participants in this case
and not the peanut gallery) could speak to our attorney at any time. And,
last I heard, they had not.
--VH
From: media-advisors-bounces@mickaboo.org
[mailto:media-advisors-bounces@mickaboo.org] On Behalf Of Karen Watkins
Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:44 AM
To: Mickaboo media advisor team
Subject: Re: [Media-advisors] Fwd: Mickaboo tiels situation
People are making a lot of incorrect assumptions about this situation.
Perhaps the energy should be focused on how to help people when they are
splitting up rather than speculating after the problem.
Karen -
Don't use the strategygroup.net email address!
On Aug 25, 2010 9:09 AM, "AMuse" wrote:
Hi all.
I've been interfacing a bit back and forth in the parrot_lovers thread on
livejournal about our "'tiel situation". I left an email address on the
thread for people to contact me and here's one of the messages I got.
Internally only; where are we with this? I know that I lack a lot of
information about the situation but the person below has been very
reasonable in communicating with me (unlike much of the list) so I owe them
at least a status update about their suggestion.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject:
Mickaboo tiels situation
Date:
Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:39:10 -0400
From:
Renee LeCompte mailto:maggock@gmail.com
To:
matt@mickaboo.org
Hey there!
Since you provided an e-mail, I thought I'd drop you a line and just say
thanks again for listening and forwarding my thoughts to others in the
organization.
I really do hope everyone can come to an arrangement that's good for all
parties. It seems to me, standing slightly outside the situation (not
completely, I must admit I'm a friend of James) that there's a good
win-win-win scenario here: Cody clearly does not want the birds, as she
signed a surrender document for them. James clearly does want the birds, as
he is fighting for them. Mickaboo, being a rescue, obviously wants to adopt
birds out to people who want them! I do realize that some concerns have
been brought up about James' fitfulness as a bird owner, but I hope that
Mickaboo will take into consideration the state of the birds when they
received them (presumably healthy and well-adjusted individuals) and perform
a home-check themselves, rather than depend on the questionable testimony of
Cody, the spouse. >_> But... it seems adopting them back out to James would
be a very ideal option here.
I'm pretty sure mediation has been brought up in the parrot_lovers thread -
would this be a viable option for Mickaboo? I know you keep saying you want
to wait for the courts to decide, but it's not really utterly necessary for
this to go to court, I don't think. Mediation might be a better, and
cheaper, option, and would probably bring about a resolution more quickly.
I think even just taking a more pro-active, constructive stance in this
would help Mickaboo in the eyes of the community. Talking to James via
mediation is another excellent option Mickaboo has, and I hope your
organization can look into that! I am definitely sincere in saying I hope
you can find a equitable solution to this. I know most everyone involved is
good people and it's saddens me to see things not really going as well as
they could have.
And thank you for taking the time to interface in the parrot_lovers journal!
I read through the entire thread and I know you're getting a fair amount of
flak just for being the messenger. I can see why no one else wanted that
job. I hope you continue your commenting though - I for one appreciate the
communication; I think it does help in showing that Mickaboo is receptive to
comments and suggestions on this situation.
Renee