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A celebrity bird is driving one New York family cuckoo.
Chris the Cockatoo has been featured on “SNL,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” and amassed nearly 50,000 followers and 1.1 million likes on TikTok, delighting fans who flock to see the fancy flyer twirl a straw or bust a dance move.
The bird’s owner, Alison Minton, says a vicious squabble with her 88-year-old aunt is giving her — and innocent Chris — a terrifying case of fight or flight.
Minton lives with her ailing 83-year-old mom Barbara in Katonah, NY during the pandemic.
But her aunt is cooped up elsewhere in Westchester County, and is worried sick over her sis, who she has not seen for ages and is refusing to admit has dementia, said Minton.
Now Chris, 20, has become collateral damage in the longstanding feud.
“My sister better suddenly appear or something near and dear to you may disappear,” a caller thought to be the aunt says in an October voicemail message left on Minton’s phone.
Minton filed a report with upstate police Feb. 19 but they determined there was no fowl play.
“She threatened to have him impounded and called him vicious,” Minton claimed. “The bird has been on sets for 19 years and there’s never been an incident. She slanders me and she slanders the bird. He has a career.”
“Look what just happened to Lady Gaga’s dog walker. I don’t think she’s [the aunt] going to come and shoot me. But I’m very concerned,” the 55-year-old former event planner told The Post. “He’s my non-human child. I’ve had him for 20 years. I love him. He’s a part of my life and he will be — hopefully for the rest of my life — and it’s just horrible to have someone threatening your pet.”
The aunt squawked back: “Is she crazy? I’m 88, but I still have possession of my faculties. I was not going to do anything to the bird and I was not going to do anything to her [Alison]. I don’t like him, I can tell you that. And he causes my sister lots of problems. He bites my sister….He came here [to her home] once in his entire life and bit my granddaughter on the cheek. It’s so absurd. This is nonsense and I don’t want to be a party of it. If she has enough time to be playing with a bird, she can find a full-time job.”
The Bedford Police department confirmed someone “spoke with an officer and the determination was no crime was committed.” They declined to provide any details of the report or discuss any possible family feud.
Cops treated Chris like some lame duck, his “mom” scoffed.
“They made it seem like, ‘big deal, it’s just a bird,’ she recalled.
She added: “I want law enforcement to reassess the situation. I want them to treat this like they would treat anybody being threatened.”
The bird’s big break came during a March 2020 “SNL” sketch about soap opera actors social distancing. Chris was perched on the arm of James Bond actor Daniel Craig. The Cockatoo also appeared in “SNL” sketch rehearsals with Harry Styles and One Direction in 2012, but the bird never made the final cut.
Chris — whose name come from being hatched on Christmas — can make over $1,000 a gig.
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