SASCHA WIL­SON

A Point Fortin man caught with ba­by macaws has been slapped with $35,000 in fines for hav­ing the pro­tect­ed birds in cap­tiv­i­ty with­out a per­mit.

Don Michael Her­bert, 30, plead­ed guilty to sev­en charges when he ap­peared vir­tu­al­ly be­fore Point Fortin Mag­is­trate Ali­cia Chankar.  

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands Her­bert was ar­rest­ed on Mon­day Au­gust 16th, af­ter WPC Nor­ie­ga and oth­er of­fi­cers ex­e­cut­ed a search war­rant at his home at Point Ligoure, around 4:45 pm.

Dur­ing the search, the of­fi­cers heard squawks com­ing from the room and up­on check­ing, found sev­en feath­er­less, red bel­ly macaws. Three were in a bas­ket and four oth­ers were in a box.

Her­bert re­port­ed­ly had no per­mit to keep the birds in cap­tiv­i­ty. He was ar­rest­ed and tak­en to the Siparia Po­lice Sta­tion.

Je­re­my Din­di­al and Andy Singh were among sev­er­al game war­dens who went down to the sta­tion af­ter they were con­tact­ed by the po­lice.  Din­di­al laid the charges.

Her­bert was slapped with the max­i­mum fine of $5,000 on each charge. He was giv­en three months to pay or in de­fault, serve nine months in prison on each charge.

The mag­is­trate or­dered that the birds be placed in the care of the Em­per­or Val­ley Zoo.