New Birds

Every Feather Part 9

The arena was once home to the Calgary Flames hockey team. They were the last team to win the Stanley Cup nearly a century ago, when it was still a fairly common practice to create a surface of ice for the sole purpose of skating on. During the city's last failed military coup, the arena was subjected to two pipe bombs and a spike missile. It became unsafe to enter after that, for the damage, although not extensive, had weakened the bowl frame at the north end. It had sat vacant for decades until they restored it, making it a favourable rental area for many crowd-gathering occasions, from religious functions to bird shows to organized war booty buy backs and trade fairs, where some of the world's greatest treasures were available for repurchase.

The arena still maintained the bowl frame of its former self but was now covered in a mosaic patchwork of salvaged materials. Stained glass, harvested from church ruins, filled hundreds of small holes in the upper dome, allowing colour to stream all the way to the stadium floor on the sunnier days. The restoration effort was considered the first united step towards a social directive, although now, thirty years later, the building's managers weren't opposed to whoever or whomever rented it, which included a few notorious organizations that most citizens of Calgary made wide, no eye contact, berths around. Regardless, the arena kept the weather out and had successfully housed The Late Minister Bird Show for the last three decades. A show that had become a big moneymaker for the city. It drew people from all over like a beacon of hope, and, if the parking lot and side roads were any indication, the stadium was at full capacity again this year.

Louis parked somewhat dubiously, blocking several parked vehicles, for he was dangerously close to the cutoff for registration. He left Simon in the trailer, hurried in through the large double doors of the arena, and, spotting a registration desk looking ready to close, made a beeline for it. After signing in, they gave him a number, a name tag and a several page catalogue put out by Anson Genetics. It contained the usual information and statistics on the world's bird populations, but as he flipped through, it was mostly about AG and their successes.

Genetically reestablished birds made up seventy percent of the birds entered in the Late Minster, many of which were introduced only within the last five-years and credited either to Bio Blanket Ltd or Anson Genetics. The smaller, grass-root companies and natural bird breeders barely got a passing mention in the catalogue. This oversight included his storks and Tilly's cranes.

It did, however, finally address the growing concern over black market birds by providing a full-page warning, complete with a list of markets that were possibly selling cloned birds as originals. Although, in most places it was still punishable by death to clone a living creature, an estimate of three percent of the entries were most likely clones, usually from high-earning, disease resistant, retired or dead prize winners. These birds usually came through the Dallas auction houses and sold as egg and sperm produced reintroductions to unsuspecting buyers. Regardless, if caught with one, ignorance was rarely a successful defence, and if caught using a black-market bird as a breeder, it would get the owners' entire flock euthanized, plus possibly the owner. These precautions were strict, but no one wanted Finn Dorset to raise its ugly head again. It was why accredited reintroductions have become a time-consuming and highly regulated undertaking. If these once massed produced animals were ever to return to the food chain safely, it was paramount to first remove all past and present cloning.

The conciliators, however, of the bigger bird shows, such as the Late Minister, were never diligent in keeping clone birds out because of the effort and time it took to trace down the DNA match for every bird that raised suspicion. Plus, three percent of the entry fees was still a sizeable amount for the coffer. Action was only taken if clones of the same bird were entered, and their similarities too striking to dismiss. The judges were then lawfully obliged to swab each bird's throat. If the birds were a match, proper authorities were notified. This was also never good publicity for a show as popular as the Late Minster, especially if owners were dragged away, tried, and possibly executed. So, it went unnoticed when possible.