SOUTHWICK – A Southwick woman was placed on probation after she accepted responsibility for a charge of cruelty to an animal.
The woman allegedly threw a pet parrot over an embankment because she was angry with the parrot’s owner.
Officer Thomas Krutka reports, in a court document, that he and Officer Michael Taggart responded to a 10:20 p.m. call on June 26, 2013, from a Granaudo Circle resident who had reported that a relative had thrown her parrot over a bluff during an argument.
Krutka reports that he arrived to find the victim, who was crying and obviously distraught, outside the residence. The woman said that her aunt was intoxicated and had just thrown her parrot over the backyard embankment.
She told Krutka that the parrot could not fly because its wings had been clipped. When Krutka asked her for clarification the woman explained that she had been involved in an argument with her aunt who became very angry and they began to “yell and scream at each other.”
She said that when she told her aunt that she was going to call the police the woman became even angrier.
While the victim was on the phone with the police, she said, she heard her aunt say “I’m going to throw your bird” and then heard the birdcage open.
She said that, when she went back into the room, that she saw the bird cage was empty and asked her aunt where ‘Lucky’ was. The woman reportedly replied, “I threw him over the embankment.”
Krutka reports that the woman said she had been looking for Lucky when he arrived. Krutka and Taggart then entered the house and Taggart then began to interview the suspect, subsequently identified as Gail Nowak, 51, of 12 Granaudo Circle.
When Krutka asked Nowak where the parrot was she replied that she did not know. When he asked her directly if she had thrown the bird over the embankment she said “no” and when he pointed to the empty bird cage she repeated “I don’t know.”
Krutka reports that he and the victim began to search for the parrot and Nowak came out of the residence. He wrote that the woman “stood on a small deck that overlooked the embankment below” and looked directly into a patch of thick brush.
When Krutka asked her “is that where you threw the parrot?” the woman replied “No, but can I see your flashlight.” When he asked her again if she threw the parrot off the deck Nowak replied “No, but it should be right there” while pointing to thick brush at the bottom of an approximately twenty foot drop.
Lucky was not found in the search that night, Krutka reports, but Taggart said later that the parrot was found alive the next day.
Krutka reports that Nowak displayed the classic symptoms of alcohol intoxication – slow and slurred speech, glassy and bloodshot eyes and an odor of alcohol on her breath.
He reports he was “not comfortable leaving her there by herself in this condition” and she was placed in protective custody.
Krutka later filed an application for a criminal complaint charging Nowak with cruelty to an animal.
She was arraigned in Westfield District Court on Dec. 4 and released on her personal recognizance pending a Feb. 11 hearing.
When she appeared before Judge Paul M. Vrabel on Tuesday Nowak submitted to facts sufficient to warrant a guilty finding and was placed on probation for two months. She was assessed $90 and will have to pay a $200 probation service fee.
Hannah Y. Meader contributed to this report.
