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