UPDATE: October 24, 2001

COUNTY'S CASE AGAINST PARROTS DRAGS ON

By Julie Verran

Point Arena artists Geoffrey and Barbara Gould are busy working on their yearly batch of museum reproductions. The legal cases over their conservation breeding of rare and endangered species of parrots are in limbo.

Judge Richard Henderson issued a decision in Ukiah on August 20 in the Goulds' state case, a counter-suit against the County of Mendocino's three l999 suits seeking to force them to remove the parrots from their land.

The decision, which follows the Goulds' eighth appearance in state court in Ukiah, asked the Gould's attorneys, William Phillips and Linda Mitlyng, to re-write the complaint and re-submit it. All these court appearances were preliminary; the actual trial is not yet set. The county asks the judge to dismiss the counter suit.

The Goulds and their attorneys aren't quite sure what the judge wants. The decision is hard to understand for this reporter, since it distinguishes between "ultimate facts" and "evidentiary facts" without citing examples. It seems to trim the list county officials named as defendants in the counter suit to those least at fault.

The county contends that the Gould's counter suit is a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, while conventional use of the term SLAPP applies to legal actions against individuals who speak out. It seems that the Goulds have a better claim to contend a SLAPP on the part of the county, and Mitlyng opined some months ago that the county's claim stands SLAPP law on its head.

The problem seems to arise from a rumor that the Gould's parrots were diseased. If they were, that could endanger the Nicholas Turkey Farms flocks on two ranches on the same rural road outside Point Arena as the Gould's farm.

The Goulds bought the 17 acre PA property in late spring of l999 so they could move their flock here from the Phoenix area, where it was getting too hot for parrots. The rumor started while they were still preparing the complex move from Arizona. There is already a parrot farm in Mendocino county of long standing, located outside Fort Bragg.

Barbara Gould says that George West, a senior state avian veterinarian, called his Arizona counterpart and asked if the Goulds' flock had ever had reportable avian diseases, learned they had not, then checked with their private veterinarian in Arizona and learned the same thing. He wrote a declaration to the County of Mendocino stating that he would testify on behalf of the Goulds.

The Goulds do not know which county official received the declaration or why it has not surfaced in the eight court appearances they made. They do know that Chief Planner Alan Falleri had letters from other California counties stating they allow parrot breeding farms.

Parrots do well here, Barbara Gould says, because the climate is similar to that of high altitude forests in the tropics, the native habitat of many species. She is internationally known for developing methods of rearing young parrots that people all over the world have used and succeeded.

The Goulds wholesale their young parrots through a single broker in the midwest who has dealt with them for years. He tests the birds for diseases before selling them.

Meanwhile, the Nicholas Turkey Farms do not have to report any avian diseases in their flock to the state, because that would give a business advantage to growers in other states that do not require reporting, the Goulds say.

The Goulds also counter sued in Federal Court, had two appearances there, and Judge Susan Illston gave them a year and a half to get permits, for such things as barns and aviaries from the county. The county responded that they need to know the disposition of the parrots before they issue permits.