Pet shop star finds new home

MARK TAYLOR/ Waikato Times

WHO'S A PRETTY BOY: Robynne Taiawa, 4, with cockatoo Chartwell, who has found a new home after his pet store went into liquidation.

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Chatty cockatoo Chartwell, the star attraction at a pet shop in a Hamilton mall, is now a casualty of the recession.

Enthusiasts have not been able to visit Chartwell, the 10-year-old sulphur-crested cockatoo, or hear him say "Hello Chartwell", "Chartwell wants a scratch", "Pretty boy", "Polly wants a pocket" and "Chartwell kiss" since Pet Corner (Hamilton) Ltd was put into voluntary liquidation on March 9 with bills of $132,000.

The store pet, who was raised by Fiona Lawrence, wife of company director Peter Lawrence, faced eviction. But before the feathers started flying Chartwell was put up for sale and last week went to Hamilton bird lover Dianna Anderton for $700.

Sulphur-crested cockatoos are worth about $1000 and can live for 80 or 90 years.

"We always popped in to see him over the past five or six years," said Ms Anderton, a Hamilton delicatessen worker who has four cockatiels and three budgies.

"I heard someone say he was for sale and I thought `I would love to buy him'."

Despite the lean times others were also interested in buying the bird, as Ms Anderton learnt when she asked at the store. However by the time she got home the sale had been finalised and the bird was hers.

Now that Ms Anderton has Chartwell home, she has discovered the bird prefers her partner Robert, who enjoys playing ball with his new-found companion.

Peter Lawrence did not want to be interviewed but he told liquidator Graeme Mcdonald that rising rent combined with falling foot traffic and competition from The Warehouse, supermarkets and pet store Animates contributed to the store's demise and that of sister companies with four stores in Auckland and one in Wellington.