Parrot visitation rights row gains whole new dimension
A US lawyer has given an interview to the BBC about a viral tweet he did about a parrot, despite accusations on social media that the anecdote came from another lawyer.
Michael Adler — who is a Philadelphia-based corporate specialist — produced the excellent tweet on Monday, lamenting divorce proceedings in which a warring couple are apparently fighting over visitation rights of their pet parrot.
Just settled a divorce over visitation of a parrot. Neither may teach it negative phrases about the other. I went to law school for this.
— Michael Adler (@madler9000) November 14, 2016
Needless to say Twitter couldn’t get enough of the Philly lawyer’s post, with more than 43,000 users retweeting the tale in under 48 hours.
Gaining huge social media traction, it wasn’t long before the press came knocking. Speaking to the BBC’s World Service programme, Adler revealed that the case involved “an all male couple”, but declined to go into detail due to it still being “an ongoing matter”.
Unfortunately for Adler — who loves “humour and satire” according to his Twitter bio — he has been accused of lifting the amusing story from another lawyer’s Twitter feed. A post, made by divorce specialist ‘Lady Lawya’, looks remarkably familiar.
Just settled a divorce over Parrot custody/visitation. Neither may teach it negative phrases abt the other.
I went to law school for this.
— Lady Lawya (@Parkerlawyer) September 15, 2016
A quick check of the dates shows that her tweet pre-dates that of Alders by almost one month. Lady Lawya has not been shy about drawing attention to this fact, retweeting a host of messages drawing attention to the similarities between the posts. Some go so far as accusing Adler of “plagiarism”. Adler hasn’t yet responded to these claims, either on Twitter or to the BBC. Legal Cheek contacted him for comment but at the time of publication had not heard back from him.