Profane Polly: Expletive-Spewing Parrots Have Been Removed From an England Zoo

In any business, it’s important to make customers feel welcome. Having employees or representatives immediately begin launching expletives and insults, for example, would offend patrons and lead to mixed or negative online reviews.

That’s likely one reason Lincolnshire Wildlife Park, a zoo in eastern England, opted to remove five parrots from the main park after the birds greeted visitors by telling them to “f*ck off.”

According to CNN, the avian agitators were recently donated to the park by five different owners and immediately made their temperaments known. The African grey parrots labeled one employee “fat” and launched other insults whenever staff or guests would walk by their enclosure.

While some guests enjoyed the profane banter, their laughter only encouraged the parrots to continue swearing. Park officials worried that visitors would be bothered by the four-letter-filled ranting and decided to remove the birds from public display.

The birds haven’t been kicked out of the park entirely. Employees are hoping a cooling-down period might help the parrots adjust. But being with other birds could also provide them with an opportunity to become a bad influence.

Steve Nichols, chief executive of the Lincolnshire Wildlife Park, told the BBC that he's "hoping" the birds will learn more appropriate words, "but if they teach the others bad language and I end up with 250 swearing birds, I don't know what we'll do."