Sanctuary finds lead paint in Chinese-made bird cages
Sep 7, 2007
By Maira Ansari
WAVE 3 TV Louisville, KY



LOUISVILLE (WAVE) -- WAVE 3 has uncovered a danger that is making some animals sick. A sanctuary in Irvington, Kentucky started noticing a problems with their birds and found that lead may be the culprit. WAVE 3's Maira Ansari has the details.

At the Broadbent Wildlife Sanctuary, you'll find just about every type of animal. It's a safe haven for animals who are sick, injured, or orphaned by wildlife. But, just recently...animal caretakers noticed something wrong with their birds.

"Several of the birds were getting thin and not acting just right," said founder and president of the sanctuary Mary Ann Tobin.

That's when Dr. Michael O'Bryan started suspecting the cages the birds live in.

"We all know that there have been reports of lead in the paint of children's toys, so we had some wondering is there lead in the paint of these cages that were made in China," O'Bryan said.

And his intuition was right. He sent off pieces of the cages and the test results came back positive for lead.

"Exposure to these cages over a period of time we may be dealing with a chronic form of lead toxois. Right now, we can't say for sure and the end result is death," said O'Bryan.

This positive test result could explain why one of their birds suddenly passed away Thursday night.

"He was a perfectly healthy bird and has been for six months and we walked in and he was just laying on his back dead and he has a mate and it just broke our hearts" said Tobin.

Now, all of the birds have been removed from their cages and their homes have been covered up.

"They can fly around into the wall into the light fixture" said O'Bryan.

Animal lovers here at the sanctuary want to let everyone know that they need to look into where their birds cages were made.

"We got to get it out there, otherwise we will loose a lot of birds and maybe other animals too because it will kill them" said Tobin.

Dr. O'Bryan says they are going to be doing testing on the rest of their birds, but their main problem now is getting new cages for the birds.

I just got off the phone with the Sanctuary inquiring into the make of the cages. The Director is out for the day and will return early evening. I've left my name and phone number and they will get back to me to let me know what kind of cages they are.

Sunshine unfortunately died and the Necropsy showed Lead as the cause. The cage was then tested and the results came back positive for Lead. They have samples out now on all their cages for testing, but don't have the results back in yet. They currently have 50-60 free flying birds in the Sanctuary and all the cages are covered so the birds cannot access them.

Oh no this sounds tragic, I think my cages came from China, I am going to have to find out where they came from but since it was a good price most probably China. I never thought of this since lead is illegal in South African manufactured paint.

Oh dear, our birds are housed in cages that we purchased from bird marts at relatively cheap prices, they resemble california cages but most likely are made in China Please let us know anymore information that you get on this matter Karen. Thanks.

I just got off the phone with the Sanctuary and they said they cannot identify the manufacturer of their cages as they bought them from different distributors. They are testing every one of their cages. They suggested that anyone concerned contact their Environmental Lab and send them a piece of the cage or a scraping for testing.

Thanks once again for this information, you can never be too careful when it comes to our babies.

Has anyone seen further updates on this? From another forum, I read that the reporter had apparently jumped the gun a bit, and the results of lead/heavy metal testing for the cage paint had not in fact been received as yet. Also, there seems to be some disagreement whether lead or zinc would be present in a powder coat finish. I hope we can keep close track of this, since it has the potential for enormous impact.

I worry about our bird's toys as well. If lead paint is showing up in children's toys imported into this country, what about parrot toys or parts? It doesn't seem logical at all to assume that companies unscrupulous enough to use lead paint on children's toys wouldn't do the same on toys intended for the animal marked. Even with toys manufactured here in the U.S., we need to be careful about where the parts were obtained.

I wonder (pure speculation on my part) whether things like this could go a ways toward explaining some of the unexplained deaths among purportedly healthy and well cared for parrots?

I wonder too Nate, about toys. I usually get blocks from the dollar store, the fids love to chew them. Well lately I cant find a single store in the area selling them. I wonder if the paint has lead and its part of the recall.

Definitely issues of accountability. - but i hate misinformation & fear mongering. There is enough to worry about!
I was in a local pet store recently & was asking the owner about her cages & toys. She said she used to have a lot of toys from the States - a really reputable manufacturer - but they can't compete with the toys from China & have discontinued a lot of the smaller toys like the penguin on wheels.

In this case all her cages are made locally which impressed me but she isn't carrying stainless or powder-coated - which is what i'm interested in as Mr Rio [aka Grendel] is determined to peel paint off the white cages.

For me the issue of a few pennies or a few dollars seems a poor reason to go to inferior products. I shop very carefully but quality is not thrown out the window at every turn. I'd rather wait on everything - until i can get what i want - & pay a bit more. After all, people have to make a living for value products.

Per my phone call to the Sanctuary, at the time of the article, they had results back on the one cage where Sunshine had resided. Necropsy and cage results showed Lead. They then sent samples out on all the cages to be tested and when I spoke to them they did not have those results back.

Zinc is not essential for the powder coating process but can be added to speed curing or to harden the finish. It is estimated that 1 - 2% of powder coated cages still contain added zinc.

I see many companies are now advertising;
100% NON-TOXIC and BIRD SAFE! Zinc and Lead Free!
which leads me to believe that the Powder Coat can also contain lead.