Fowl behaviour: Turkish TV personality jailed for torturing parrot

TV star Murat Ozdemir was detained after a birdbrained social media stunt left him falling fowl of the law.

2 min read

18 December, 2018

Police raided Murat Ozdemir's home after the video attracted ire [Twtter]

It's not unheard of for reality TV stars to pull off outrageous stunts to pump up their social media following, however for Turkish TV star Murat Özdemir, there may actually be such thing as bad publicity.

Özdemir, a contestant on the Turkish versions of Survivor and Masterchef, was arrested after posting a video of himself mistreating a small parrot.

Police raided his home in Istanbul's Beşiktaş neighbourhood late on 17 December, after his post attracted hundreds of complaints on social media.

The sadistic video, which showed Özdemir clenching the bird around its neck with its feet bound up, unsurprisingly attracted the ire of animal rights activists, who staged a protest outside his home.

Twitter Post

Turkish singer and animal rights activist Ömür Gedik told reporters outside the Beşiktaş police station that Özdemir should be arrested.

"Such a person should not be able to walk free. It is clear that he is not sane," she said, as reported by Hurriyet Daily News.

Read more: Cute kitty becomes Istanbul's latest catwalk star

After Özdemir's arrest, the parrot was seized by the authorities and nursed back to health. Agriculture Minister Bekir Pakdemirli tweeted a video of the parrot back in its cage with the caption "Now in safe hands".

According to Hurriyet, Özdemir is notorious for his "erratic" behaviour, becoming the first ever contestant to be disqualified from Masterchef.