A bizarre story I saw on KSLNewsradio.com yesterday.

A man was arrested by customs at JFK Airport in New York for smuggling.  Tucked inside his jacket… and taped around his legs… not drugs.  No.  Hair curlers.  And inside each curler… was a small bird… stuffed into the roller… with the open ends capped by mesh netting.

Why would a guy smuggle 35 little finches into America.  And the answer is… for the singing competitions of course.

In New York… this is a man known as the Bird King of Queens.   Ray Harinarain is an immigrant from Guyana in South America…. where bird singing competitions are a form of entertainment.  And he’s brought it here.   

Competitors bring their caged birds to a park … for head-to-head sing-offs.   Each cages is placed on a pole… and the rest is like Avian Idol.   Now if you think there’s cruelty involved.  No… no…

Owners coddle these birds with protein diets and selective breeding because in a Sunday competition… the bird that makes the most birdcalls in the course of an hour can win  $10,000.

No wonder there’s a housefinch smuggling ring.  36 year old Kevin MacKenzie says he was paid $3000 to smuggle the finches into America.   He’s been released by customs  on $25,000 bond.  The smuggler… is now free as a bird.  

When Kevin MacKenzie goes to court… he better hope those finches… don’t sing like canaries.

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