Taiwan: Man is fined $90,000 after parrot injured doctor

A Tai­wanese man was sen­tenced to two months in prison and fined TWD 3.04 mil­lion (US$91,350) after his pet par­rot injured a doctor.

Accord­ing to the Tai­wan Cen­tral News Agency, Dr. Lin dis­lo­cat­ed his hip and frac­tured his pelvis in a fall from a bird.

He land­ed on his back, flap­ping his wings again and again, frightened.

The court is told the own­er took the bird and anoth­er macaw for a walk near where Dr. Hayashi was jogging.

Dr. Lin filed a civ­il claim against the macaw’s own­er (who is only known by his last name Huang) for neg­li­gence injury and seek­ing com­pen­sa­tion for eco­nom­ic loss.

Hayashi tes­ti­fied in court that he was hos­pi­tal­ized for a week due to his injuries, was unable to work for more than six months, and took six months to recov­er, three months of which he received spe­cial med­ical care.

His lawyer told TVBS News that Dr. Hayashi suf­fered con­sid­er­able finan­cial loss from the injury as he is a plas­tic sur­geon whose job involves “stand­ing for long hours”.

“I can walk now, but stand­ing for long peri­ods of time makes me numb,” said the lawyer.

A spokesper­son for the Tainan Dis­trict Court’s admin­is­tra­tive depart­ment told media out­lets that the case was “unusu­al,” unlike any­thing seen in civ­il courts over the past decade.

The court ruled that Dr. Lin’s fall was due to Huang’s neg­li­gence. Accord­ing to the Lib­er­ty Times, the judge said the macaw’s size (40cm tall, 60cm wingspan) meant Huang owned a large ani­mal and “pro­tec­tion mea­sures” should have been tak­en. said.

Accord­ing to the Cen­tral News Agency, the prison sen­tence was giv­en for “unin­ten­tion­al injury”.

Huang said he respects the court’s rul­ing, but intends to appeal, argu­ing that the macaws were not aggres­sive and that the com­pen­sa­tion was “too high.”