My Thoughts On The Newaygo Parrot Witness Story

6.29.16

MeetBud: Parrot, possible murder witness & Could Parrot That Says'Don't F---ing Shoot' Be The Key To Owner's Murder

These videos belong to WOODTV8 and InsideEdition, respectively. They deal with a sad situation of a woman (not sure if it's a good idea to state their names, even though it's clearly in the videos) shooting her husband during a heated argument. The problem? Immaturity and guns being the wrong hands. Another issue is the fact that the only witness to see the murder happens to be a Congo African grey parrot named bud. Bud is shown in several related videos that have been caught on camera of him mimicking parts of the argument that took place, most notably the following phrase: “Don't f***ing shoot!” That is the phrase that has gained international attention to this bird, the videos and the tragic story behind it. As you can probably expect, the Newaygo County prosecutor, TV commenter Beth Karas and many others believe that the parrot is insufficient evidence of standing in court as a witness, because you cannot tell if the bird was mimicking something off TV or something else. It's understandable that using a parrot as a witness sounds stupid and unreliable, but in this case there was no television playing in the background, and the man is clearly dead. Also, the guilty woman even tried to shoot herself to avoid dealing with the potential consequences of her atrocious actions. More proof? The ex-wife of this man knows both the man, bird and his newer partner well, and pointed out that the bird was imitating the man's voice, and the emotions in it's voice further supports this. Am I saying that they should bring this parrot to court as a witness? No, that would be a little silly I must agree, but the evidence is clearly on video, the man is in fact dead, the body has been found, so all they need to do is put the puzzle pieces together and realize that there's more than enough proof the woman, who also tried to deny it, is undeniably guilty. Honest witnesses are great, but they might not always be there, or even be a human in rare circumstances like this one.