Indonesian Villagers Hide Birds And Spread Flu

March 5, 2007 — -- Sofian Suri loves birds. He has been training and selling them at his home for some 30 years, since he was a teenager. So when the Indonesian government ordered Suri to get rid of his flock in compliance with bird flu prevention measures, he did what any bird lover would do. He hid them.

At first he stashed them on his roof. But now that government officials have stopped coming around, he is hiding the birds in plain sight. About two dozen pigeons live in a cubby-style coop across the street from his house. Four smaller birds sit in cages on his porch.

"I really love animals like this. I care for birds, chickens, that is my hobby," he says.

In January, a string of human bird flu deaths in and around the country's capital, Jakarta, prompted the government to impose a ban on backyard birds. City residents were given until Feb. 1 to kill, sell or eat their birds. The government paid owners about $1.40 for every sick bird killed. They paid nothing for healthy birds.

For Suri, complying with the culling would have killed two birds with one stone: He would have lost his beloved birds and a valuable source of income.

"The government won't buy them," Suri complains. "When they destroy the birds, there's no compensation."

Suri represents an additional challenge for health officials. Like many backyard farmers, he is poor, and resistant to measures that cost him money. For poor people, the birds can be a form of insurance.

"If they don't have money, they sell them," explains Wardah Hafidz, an urban poverty advocate. "If they don't buy meat they slaughter the animals. For some … it's a source of money for gambling."

Coexisting with birds is common among the country's poor. As a result, some people feel a special bond with the birds, and do not believe they can be of harm, creating yet another obstacle to effective prevention measures.

"I feel bad for the birds, because they've done nothing wrong," says Sodikin, a bird seller in Jakarta who chose not to give his last name.