London, Aug 13: A parrot stuck on a London roof treated firefighters who came to its aid this morning with a torrent of expletives, it is claimed.
Officers from the London Fire Brigade (LFB) were called to rescue Jessie the Macaw parrot, who had spent three days languishing on a neighbour’s roof after escaping her home in Cuckoo Hall Lane, Edmonton.
The firefighters were called amid concerns for Jessie’s welfare after owners and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) failed to get her down.
In an effort to bond with the parrot, the fire crew manager coaxed her with the words “I love you”, as instructed by animal experts.
But the parrot had uttered a four-letter expletive, according to a witness.
Watch manager Chris Swallow, who was at the scene, said: “Jessie had been on the same roof for three days and there were concerns that she may be injured which is why she hadn’t come down.
“Our crew manager was the willing volunteer who went up the ladder to try and bring Jessie down. We were told that to bond with the parrot, you have to tell her ‘I love you’, which is exactly what the crew manager did.
“While Jessie responded ‘I love you’ back, we then discovered that she had a bit of a foul mouth and kept swearing, much to our amusement.
“Jessie also speaks Turkish and Greek, so we tried telling her to ‘come’ in both those languages too.
“Thankfully it soon became apparent that Jessie was fine and uninjured as she flew off to another roof and then to a tree.”
The scene was reminiscent of an episode of ‘London’s Burning’ in which the pump ladder crew is called to bring down a parrot called Clive which refuses to come down from a roof. In episode seven of series two, the character Sicknote tries to coax the parrot down and ends up talking to the bird as if it was a person threatening suicide.
The LFB said that in the first instance, anybody worried about a pet stuck on the roof should call the RSPCA, who will revert to the LFB only if they are unable to help.
-standard.co.uk