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By JEFF WALSH; Times Leader Staff Writer
Friday, October 28, 1994     Page: 3A

KINGSTON — Six-inch mounds of feces, feathers and food filled some of the
bird cages taken from a Loveland Avenue home by humane officials Thursday
afternoon.
   
Claire Schuh cq , the owner of the 21 exotic birds, signed the pets over to
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Schuh said that she was
unable to attend to their cages because of a water leak in the basement, where
they were kept. She donated the cages to the SPCA.
    The SPCA and Kingston Health Officer John Roper went to the home after
receiving an anonymous complaint about animals in the home.
   
“There were definitely a couple thousand dollars worth of birds in there,”
said Bob Arnold, a humane agent with the SPCA. The birds — 13 Cockatiels cq ,
three love birds, two doves, two Goffin’s cq Cockatoos cq and one finch —
were taken to a veterinarian, and will be put up for adoption at the SPCA.
   
Schuh, who lives with her mother, said the basement is flooded with several
inches of water. She said cleaning the cages would be impossible because she
would have to stretch an extension cord through the water in order to operate
her wet-and-dry vacuum cleaner.
   
Schuh said medical bills prevented her from fixing the water leak. However,
Schuh said she contacted a plumber after she surrendered the birds.
   
Since Schuh agreed to release the birds, no charges will be filed in this
incident, Roper said.
   
Kingston Code Enforcement Officer Bob Granick said that “nothing else was
out of the ordinary” with the house.
   
Two dogs and four cats were left in the home, which is owned by Schuh’s
mother. Schuh refused to identify her mother.
   
Schuh owns a home on McHale Street in Wilkes-Barre that neighbors are
trying to get cleaned up. Neighbors say that house is full of rats, animal
feces, insects, pet food and piles of garbage.
   
TIMES LEADER PHOTOS/BOB ESPOSITO
   
Ed Dubil of the SPCA loads birds onto a truck in Kingston Thursday.
   
Pictured are two of the 21 birds removed from a Kingston home by the SPCA.