Ex-Wife: Pet Parrot Repeating Words Man Said Before Death

Baby parrots sit in a federal police station in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2008. Federal police said a man was arrested while trying to smuggle 200 baby parrots which have a black market value of close to US$1... Baby parrots sit in a federal police station in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2008. Federal police said a man was arrested while trying to smuggle 200 baby parrots which have a black market value of close to US$15,000. The parrots will be taken to a recovery center at Ibama, Brazil's environmental agency, before being returned to their natural habitat. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo) MORE LESS
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ENSLEY TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The ex-wife of a western Michigan man believes a parrot is repeating something said just before his fatal shooting, but a prosecutor is downplaying whether it could be used in court.

Newaygo County Prosecutor Robert Springstead told The Associated Press on Monday he “highly doubts there is any precedent” that what’s repeated by a parrot can be used as evidence. Springstead says that when a judge says to raise a right hand, “to a parrot, are you raising a wing, a foot?”

Martin Duram was slain in Ensley Township in May 2015. Then-wife Glenna Duram had a head wound, but survived.

Ex-wife Christina Keller tells WOOD-TV that Martin Duram’s parrot, Bud, has repeated “don’t (expletive) shoot” in Martin’s voice. Springstead says he hasn’t heard it.

The death remains under investigation.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  1. Parrot needs to be sworn in?

    I could certainly be wrong, but is there any creature on earth other than man that willfully lies?

    Something tells me there’s more to this story…

  2. Koko the gorilla has been known to lie. More plausibly than Trump! But of course Koko is more attractive. And smells better. Makes a better witness generally.

  3. Yeah, other apes in signing studies tell lies as well. And willful deception appears to play a rather large role in chimp social life, particularly in the areas of sex and economic activity. As they do in ours.

    I don’t hate chimps, but it is really unnerving to see so many of our worst traits showing up in in our closest living relatives.

  4. I’m not sure how much conscious thought goes into it but birds like killdeer and grouse do displays, sometimes feigning injury, to draw potential predators away from their nests. I’ve had cats myself that would pretend everything was fine when they were sick. All I’m sure of is the producers of the original Law & Order are kicking themselves because it was over six years ago and they can’t rip this one from the headlines. I used to watch it but I don’t remember even one time where the big technicality that kept the key piece of evidence out of the trial was the witness’s being a parrot.

  5. But the parrot’s words mean nothing, unless they are calling it suicide. “Don’t effing shoot!” Doesn’t ID anyone, so I don’t get the relevance of the “testimony.”

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