Is Budgie off the menu? (Bird lovers beware!)

[Konovalov]

I've always enjoyed game bird but I can't say that I've ever tried this before or come across it on a menu.

Jail for microwaving budgie
April 4, 2006 - 11:52AM

A New Zealand teenager who microwaved to death a budgie he stole from a school classroom has been jailed for nine months.

Ashley James Daldy, 18, had pleaded guilty to eight charges of burglary and one of cruel treatment of an animal in the North Island city of Hamilton, the Waikato Times reported.

The Hamilton District Court was told Daldy on three occasions broke into the school where he was once a pupil, stealing the pet bird, computer equipment and a video.

He later put the budgie in a microwave oven.

Judge Anne McAloon said the killing of the bird was a "particularly nasty offence" but the burglaries were more serious.

Daldy broke into three other schools and a community hall. He also admitted two charges of wilful damage committed while on bail.

"The worst part of the offending in our collective opinion was what he did to the bird," Hamilton West School principal Catherine McLeod told the newspaper.

"That had huge repercussions for the little kids."

AAP