From official indifference after PETA report, one might imagine Creekside Birds to be a cockpit
PADEN, Oklahoma––There is not much of a creek near Creekside Birds LLC, on U.S. Highway 62 west of Paden, Oklahoma.
Though the Creekside Birds address is in Paden, Okfuskee County, human population 419, the metal-clad parakeet breeding barn is actually just as close to the “city” of Prague, Lincoln County, built by Czech settlers, population 2,356.
But Creekside Birds is in Okfuskee County, and also just barely within the Muskogee (Creek) Nation, which ends at the Lincoln County line.
Awkwardly divided authority may explain why, as Samson Tamijani reported for KRJH television in Tulsa on August 13, 2026, “More than three months after inspections from the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported inhumane conditions and possible crimes” at Creekside Birds, “law enforcement is yet to act upon, or even acknowledge, the report.”
Local good old boys
The local good old boy network may explain a bit, too.
Creekside Birds registered owner Pedro Kauenhofen, 56, is also the registered owner of DH Farm Equipment, just up U.S. Highway 62, closer to Paden, which appears to have the biggest footprint by area, anyhow, of any Paden business.
Pedro Kauenhofen, in addition is a farmer, recipient of USDA subsidy payments totaling $37,818 from 1995 through 2025.
Generations of the Kauenhofen family have farmed in the area.
But Creekside Birds, not to be confused with a facility in Indiana sharing the same name, does not appear to be among the more successful Kauenhofen family enterprises.
“People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) first contacted 2 News Oklahoma in June,” Samson Tamijani narrated, “asking for local news coverage of what it claimed was an undercover investigation revealing deplorable conditions at Creekside Birds, said to be a contractor for major pet retailers like PetSmart, Petland, and Petco.
(Beth Clifton photo)
10,000 birds in barn licensed for 8,100
PETA vice president of evidence analysis Dan Paden, “no relation to the town,” Tamijani specified, described to KRJH a multi-month investigation conducted by at least one undercover operative who worked “for a few months” at Creekside Birds.
The PETA observations were submitted to the USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service. USDA-APHIS inspectors on May 5, 2026 responded by visiting Creekside Birds, reporting that it kept “approximately 10,000 animals present at the facility,” while “licensed for a maximum of 8,100 animals,” that it “did not use appropriate methods to treat diseases and injuries,” and did not track the number of parakeets who died or were euthanized, Tamijani summarized.
“One of the USDA reports,” Tamijani continued, “said inspectors observed unsanitary conditions ‘in and around budgie cages and on water lines, characterized by heavy accumulation of droppings, feather dust, seed hulls, and old food. Perches and bars are covered in caked-on waste, and cage floors contain feces-covered broken and intact eggs along with significant piles of dried and fresh feces.”
Said Dan Paden, via Zoom to Tamijani, “We submitted all the evidence in person and gave a sworn statement to the Okfuskee County sheriff. Now, almost three months have passed, and despite 17 follow-ups with that agency and the district attorney’s office, there is no sign of an investigation being undertaken.”
Hurry-up-&-wait runaround
Tamijani confirmed the hurry-up-and-wait runaround. Eventually, Tamijani said, “Undersheriff Justin Snelson told 2 News the sheriff’s office could offer no comment nor could it confirm knowledge of any USDA report of the parakeet breeding facility.
“2 News then submitted a direct email to sheriff Amber Gaskins,” Tamijani added, “who was named to the position earlier this summer after controversy surrounding handling of the county jail, but as of August 13, 2026 the email has gone unanswered.”
Dan Paden said he had “never run into a law enforcement jurisdiction as unwilling to communicate, as unwilling to answer simple questions, as unwilling to so much as do their job and enforce the law as we are seeing right now in Okfuskee County.”
Actually, both Showing Animals Respect & Kindness and Animal Wellness Action have encountered similar from sheriff’s departments throughout Oklahoma and many other states, in connection with investigations of cockfighting in particular.
PETA bannered “Huge win!” prematurely
PETA, meanwhile, might be described as having broken parakeets’ eggs on its collective face after having bannered on June 15, 2026, “Huge win for parakeets! Following PETA’s investigation into Creekside Birds, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) just cited the Oklahoma-based breeder with thousands of violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act in an inspection report posted today.”
But violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act noted in USDA-APHIS inspection reports are still many steps away from closing a non-compliant facility, fining the owner, and accomplishing anything positive for the birds.
PETA had already, on June 4, 2026, reported the grim findings of “a PETA investigator who worked undercover at Creekside Birds,” finding that “This breeder trapped these sensitive, complex individuals in filthy wire cages caked with feces and littered with the remains of baby chicks so long dead that their tiny bodies had dried out.
“The breeder denied birds veterinary care for serious injuries and what staff said was a highly contagious virus and killed them in cruel, violent ways—or just left them to die slowly.
“Can’t even spread their wings”
“Parakeets—often called budgies—are small parrots native to Australia,” PETA continued. “These remarkable individuals fly across vast landscapes in search of the best food and water sources. But Creekside imprisons parakeets used for breeding in row after row of dark metal cages measuring only about nine inches in each direction.
“If the pairs survive and meet the owners’ demand that they “produce” at least five chicks every two months, they spend years in these prisons.
“The average parakeet’s wingspan is about 12 inches, meaning the birds can’t even spread their wings in these wiry jail cells,” PETA said. “Many birds’ tail feathers were frayed or missing because there wasn’t enough room for them even to perch without their tail feathers rubbing against the cage bars.
“Cages have never been cleaned”
“Young parakeets who had been torn from their parents,” PETA charged, were “crammed 50 or more birds per cage. The young birds clung to the sides of the cages with their toes or huddled on the dirty floor. They didn’t have enough perches to rest on or space to stretch their wings without hitting another bird.
“Parakeets show affection toward their families by feeding and preening each other,” PETA continued, “but the intensely traumatic conditions at Creekside drove them to attack. Birds at the operation even wounded and killed their own offspring—an indication of severe anxiety and deprivation.”
Some parrot species notoriously commit infanticide to reduce the number of hatchlings they have to care for, but parakeets are not among them.
“Creekside has been operating since approximately 2022—and the cages have apparently never been cleaned,” alleged PETA.
(Beth Clifton photo)
“Trophic cascade” of underlying issues
Mira Tweti in her 2008 book Of Parrots & People identified what ecologists might describe as a “trophic cascade” of underlying issues, beginning with how “The 1973 law that prohibited importing wild-caught birds for the pet trade encouraged the rise of ‘birdy-milling,’ as exploitative as ‘puppy-milling,’ with even less regulatory supervision.”
Tweti described at length the failures of regulation over nearly 30 years, 1982-2012, to rectify conditions at Martha Scudder’s Parrot Depot in Roy, Washington, from the first-hand perspective of having covered the Parrot Depot case for the Tacoma News Tribune.
The Humane Society of Tacoma & Pierce County pursued litigation and sought improvements to both local ordinances and state laws to deal with Parrot Depot, and other facilities like it, for at least seven years, to no avail.
Parrot Depot finally did phase itself out of business, as the owners reached retirement. A spinoff company selling parrot supplies, Parrotique, of Yelm, Washington, is also no longer in business.
No more protection than poultry for the pot
Meanwhile, parrots raised for the pet trade, both then and now, have no more protection than poultry raised for the pot, which means effectively none.
(See USDA proposes to cover birds under the Animal Welfare Act––sort of and Cockatoo Rescue collapse makes case for Animal Welfare Act inspection.)
Mira Tweti later in Of Parrots & People pointed out that the usual fate of parrots seized from smugglers coming across the Mexican border is to be quarantined indefinitely in Plexiglas cages, then be auctioned to buyers who include some of the same dealers who buy from smugglers.
That also has not changed.
(See Coyotes, parrots, & the ghosts of George & Joy Adamson.)
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In many areas of L.A. County and in the Bay Area as well, there are huge flocks of conures, generations removed from the hapless cage birds some people buy and keep. I’ve always considered these birds, who have adapted quite well to being far from their ancestral home, to be fortunate survivors.
My grandmother always kept caged parakeets. She loved them. I’ve always wondered how anyone can “love” someone they keep in a cage, often alone, for life.
Thanking you for covering yet another example of man’s extreme inhumanity to members of other species. In these times when human life is cheap, others count as nothing to those in power.
Again, more coverage of repugnant modes of inhumanity against sentient beings – this time exquisite parakeets, which sickens advocates such as are we. PETA, SHARK & Animal Wellness Action do their best to expose this vile abuse and you cover it and expose it further and yet no action is taken to rectify these despicable conditions by those who perpetrate them for profit.
The feeling of helplessness and intense frustration persists in the face of such bold, cruel laxity. I can only echo Ms Petzak in expressing my anger at this indifference to the cruelty these persons allow and deliberately perpetuate and agree with her that these are times when all life is cheap to those in power.
They certainly try our souls and we can only do all we can to change this grim scenario wherever possible.
The corruption of the very officers and agencies that should be actively enforcing the laws being broken is nauseating. These are the same cretins who look the other way in cockfighting. Poor birds of any kind don’t get a break. This is NOT ACCEPTABLE.
Maybe vigilante justice is what is needed here. If the USDA doesn’t have the balls to do their job, then we need an Animal Liberation Front to take care of these situations.