Most of the news sites that have covered this story used a picture of some random Amazonian parrot as the featured image.

We’re not in the business of parrot shaming, so the picture above is actually Freddy Krueger – a parrot who has survived being shot, bitten by a snake, and more recently – abducted.

Freddy got his name – a reference to A Nightmare on Elm Street – because his face was disfigured when he was injured in a shootout between police and gangsters during a raid on the drug den where he had lived with his former owner, reports The Guardian.

“In the shootout, [Freddy] was hit in the upper-beak … blinded and suffered burns to the feathers that grow between the eyes,” the Folha de São Paulo reported.

Following the shootout, Freddy was relocated to the zoo, where he was bitten on the leg by a snake. Thankfully, it was the non-venomous kind.

Freddy bled profusely but survived, only to be stolen days later when three armed raiders burst into Cascavel’s zoo, overpowered its security guard and made off with two parrots and a cylinder of gas.

Two days later, Freddie returned. He was found by zoo staff at the foot of a pine tree next to his cage.

The details of Freddy’s comeback remain murky, although drops of blood found near his former abode have fuelled speculation that the notoriously aggressive parrot bit his way out.

“He’s a bit of a wild one,” Ilair Dettoni, the zoo’s vet, was quoted as saying.

Dettoni suspected Freddy’s mangled features might have proven his salvation, given the limited market for deformed parrots. “I don’t know if Freddy is really unlucky or really lucky,” he said.

Whatever he is, he deserves our respect.

[source:guardian]