PETA wants charges against Aurora bird hoarder

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, is pushing the city of Aurora to press charges against the man who hoarded 478 birds — 120 of them dead — in his townhouse, saying he needs court-mandated mental health treatment.
PETA sent a letter Wednesday to police Chief Greg Thomas, Mayor Tom Weisner and other city officials requesting criminal charges be filed against Dave Skeberdis, 57, whose large population of birds inside his trash-infested home was discovered Oct. 19.
“We are pushing for Skeberdis to be charged under Illinois state statute, the Humane Care for Animals Act,” said Kristin Simon, a senior cruelty caseworker with PETA’s cruelty investigations department. “It provides specific details for how animals are to be cared for with regard to food, water, shelter and humane living conditions.”

Simon said reports about the condition of Skeberdis’ townhouse, which had stairways covered with about three feet of garbage, bird feed and bird feces, indicate his animals were not living in humane conditions. She said the Humane Care for Animals Act also defines an animal hoarder as someone who possesses a large number of companion animals, keeps them in an overcrowded environment and is unable to properly care for them.


Continued: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20121031/news/710319540/

Bird Club Caring For Hundreds Of Birds Rescued From Aurora Hoarder’s House

VILLA PARK, Ill. (CBS) – Hundreds of birds that had been flying free in a trash-strewn town home in Aurora were in a new home on Saturday.

WBBM Newsradio’s Mike Krauser reports a total of 358 birds were rescued from David Skeberdis’ home on Shadybrook Lane in Aurora this week, after his home was declared a nuisance property by the city of Aurora.

Barbara Morris and a team of volunteers from the Greater Chicago Cage Bird Club have been caring for the birds at a Villa Park storefrtont, after they were rescued by professional contractors on Friday.

Skeberdis had tried to capture the birds on his own beginning Wednesday night, but managed to capture only about a dozen by a 10 a.m. deadline on Friday. That’s when Aurora officials sent in private contractors to remove the rest of the birds.

“They took in nets. It was a team of seven men who went into the home in hazmat gear, because of the … extraordinarily high mold levels within the home,” Morris said.

Continued:  http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/10/27/bird-club-caring-for-hundreds-of-birds-rescued-from-aurora-hoarders-house/

Hundreds of birds in hoarder’s home

Police found hundreds of birds in an Aurora home — an animal hoarding case that investigators struggled to even describe.

“It’s really difficult to articulate in words,” what was seen inside the home, Aurora police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said. “It’s a pretty extreme case.”

City crews were unable to determine how many birds were alive — or dead — inside the home in the 200 block of Shadybrook Lane Friday because the scene was not deemed safe for investigators to enter. He estimated the number of birds — finches, canaries, parakeets, conures, cockatiels and others — was in the hundreds.

Crews are waiting on air quality tests before they enter the home.

Continued:  http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/15855418-418/hundreds-of-birds-found-in-aurora-hoarders-home.html