FIRE, theft, brutal killings and sabotage.

It sounds like something out of a Godfather movie, but it isn't. It is the grim reality for attorney-at-law and former speaker of the House of Assembly, Lindsay Bolden, who never thought his dreams of running a bird sanctuary would turn into such a nightmare.

Nine years ago, Bolden opened the doors to the Ayshford Bird Park, Ayshford Ratite Gardens,St Thomas, with hopes of educating school children about all kinds of exotic birds ranging from ostriches to pheasants, emus, and guinea birds.

It went pretty well at first, until he decided to tap into the tourist market.

He pitched his idea of having visitors tour the park to a number of players in the tourism sector, and Bolden recalled that his troubles began soon after. His bird sanctuary turned into a slaughter house.

He started waking up to grisly scenes, like the one reported in last Thursday's DAILY NATION, where three ostriches were found dead on Wednesday morning with their throats slit and heads bashed.

The vandals returned Wednesday night and killed the last two emus on the farm in an equally brutal manner.

Now, he has a handful of ostriches remaining.

Over the years, he has lost about 1 000 guinea birds – 500 of which were poisoned in one night – 55 ostriches, and 16 emus.

"Almost every week, we were losing birds until it reached the point where I gave up trying to run a bird farm," said Bolden, who closed the farm back in 2004 to try his hands at another venture, a housing development called Eagle Pointe Development which will utilise the massive property.

It will feature tennis and hard courts, swimming pools, a sauna spa, a medical centre equipped with a 24-hour doctor's service, a dentist, ophthalmologist, club house, hairdressing and beauty salon and a mini golf course.

One of the main attractions is supposed to be the ostriches, but if things continue on their deadly path, this could be ruled out.

According to manager of the Ayshford Ratite Gardens, Ann-Marie Hodgson, three ostriches were stolen last year and shipped overseas for profit.

"We were informed they were shipped somewhere; but nobody sees or hears anything in Barbados.

"If things continue this way, we will be forced to come out of the ostrich business," she said, adding they had found alternative ways
of profiting from the ostriches: selling their meat – which is considered a delicacy – and using the egg shells in handicraft. The skin of the bird can also be used as leather for tanning.

Bolden told the SUNDAY SUN he has received offers from individuals who wanted to get in on the ostrich business but he didn't entertain the idea.

"I refused partnership with anyone with my ostriches."

He believes he is being sabotaged by people who don't want to see him succeed.

"From the time I opened this project, I've had absolute destruction. I started to have damaged birds until a lady in the village said to me: 'Mr Bolden, I does see a van come up here and let out dogs when the night come'.

"The whole place was fenced and I couldn't understand how dogs were getting in. They killed a number of guinea birds.

"One of my workers suggested that the next time they killed the birds I should poison the dead birds and put them back down. It worked. I came out and found three dogs dead. And I remember seeing this man in a security van whistling for the dogs to return to him. I shouted and told him to come, that I have all of them here; he jumped in his van and sped off," recalled Bolden.

The vandalism stopped for a while, afterwards; but then it started again. This time the vandals weren't canines but men.

"The police looked at the dead birds and concluded it was not the work of dogs but human beings.

"At one point, I hatched 42 young ostriches. It was the first time ostriches were ever bred in Barbados. I kept them under the house until they were about six weeks-old. One morning, I went out and 36 of them were chopped up, not just killed – chopped up," he said with some degree of hurt in his voice.

The vandals even cut off one of the legs of an adult ostrich in a sadistic manner, leaving it to bear up its weight – ostriches can weigh up to 350 pounds – on the other leg.

But it got worse. On May 29, 2006, vandals set fire to the grounds in hopes of burning the ostriches alive. The fire started around 11:30 a.m. and it took fire officers until 6:30 p.m. that night to extinguish it.

However, Bolden is planning to fight back.

"I am putting back electrical security and I hope to see the results. My birds are defenceless at night against a man with a cutlass, so I have to assist them in defending themselves. These are vicious, criminal attacks on defenceless birds," said Bolden, who called for legislation to make such incidences criminal offences.