We are Devastated to share this news with you Molly has been surrendered to the Southern wildlife Operations Department of Environment , science and innovation .  

Together we host a few social media pages called Peggy and Molly,  sharing the fun and love our dogs have with a wild magpie we rescued from certain death when he fell from the nest when he was just a baby.
 
And, together they have over 2 million followers from all over the world who watch their antics.
 
Three years ago, Sept 2020 we were out for a walk during lockdown when we found a very young fledgling wandering around weak and alone . We watched from the other side of the park for many hours but the magpies that were around were not going anywhere near this little bird who had either fallen from or was  pushed out of the nest or just abandoned because he was sick. We don’t know.
 
We were very concerned because the park was an off-leash dog park in the afternoons and up to 30 dogs of all breeds run around crazily we knew this little bird would not stand a chance . So, we did what any animal lovers would do and made the decision to bring him home and care for him.
We lived just up the road so we continued to take the magpie back to the park for the next 5 days in hope that the mother or father would come and tend to the young bird but to no avail.
 
Over the next few months we nurtured this magpie , taught him how to feed , fly and put him outside as much as possible because our goal was to get him back out into the wild .
 
We Never caged the little magpie we let him roam free inside and out.
Our dog had just finished her first season and started to produce milk 3 weeks after we brought him home and from that moment they bonded .
What started out as cute moments we caught on camera phones quickly grew attention on social media because it made people happy during lockdown .
 
Juliette is a creator who loves all types of art from photography and had only pure intentions when capturing these special moments.
The relationship between the two animals was simply remarkable, so Juliette would post on Peggy’s page which was originally PeggySue11 .
Juliette posted some wonderful photos and short movies with cute quotes, and it went viral. Not intentionally, people just found so much joy from it.
 
Molly would be in the backyard all day walking around the garden looking for food and once he could fly, he learnt very quickly that if he ventured into another magpie’s territory he would be attacked just like in the wild.
 
The first time he went away was for about 4-5 days and when we put up on socials that he had gone for an adventure, the stress it caused most of our followers was enormous. It just as stressful for us, as the people have grown to love this little bird, so from that point on we didn’t let people know when he went away for long periods.

Then eventually he would venture further and for longer until one day he wasn’t accepted into some of the local groups, and this is when we realised, we may need to get more information as how to best help him . By this stage, the rental crisis hit, and the owner was selling the home we were living in.
 
We decided that it was in Mollys best interest for him to come with us as he had formed a strong bond with all of us and we could rehabilitate him into a new area close to us and make sure he knew where we were if he needed us.
 
We have done a great job in achieving this goal, and he had been accepted into our local group of young males and did fly away with them for periods of time.
 
Molly was always free to come and go as he pleased, but he chose to stay close. He was fully self-sufficient, and we provided only had a few snacks of meal worms and crickets for him when he was around .
 
We mostly took video and photos of them playing inside the house and areas of the back yard that can’t been pinpointed on google maps because we have had a few fans who behave like stalkers and we did not want to disclose our location or anything that could jeopardise our animal’s safety, or our own.
 
A few years ago we had a follower that offered to volunteer on our page,  and things turned very sour because she was asking us and our followers for money. We decided to cut off contact from this person when we found out she was doing this.
 
For the past couple of years the lady that was asking for money, has harassed , bullied and defamed our name & gathered a group of people together and campaigned to have Molly the magpie taken from us because we wouldn’t give in to her demands and would let people know she wasn’t raising money for our animals.  

This group she cobbled together contacted the DESI constantly , and eventually they turned up on our door on the 13th June 2023 wanting us to surrender Molly and we refused - as he was thriving in the trees surrounding our property and had been accepted here, after long discussions they left so we assumed everything was ok .
 
We were happy of course because not only did we change people’s perception of Magpies in a positive way, but we also changed millions of peoples view of Staffordshire bull terriers .

We did everything in our power to work with the department including doing the training & getting a wildlife permit which Reece had to retract because of the conflict of interest because of our social media pages .
 
Then this year, 6 months later we received another letter on the 15th of Jan stating S88A the nature Conservation Act 1992 .
 
After much discussion and exhausting all avenues to preserve a stable safe environment for Molly over the past few months, Juliette made the toughest decision of her life and handed over a wild bird to be put into captivity. Juliette asked on the day if we could visit him regularly and monitor his progress. So far, they have not responded to our requests.
 
As previously mentioned, Reece obtained a wildlife permit & we have done everything on our side to comply, but we have not been heard and worse, Molly has been taken away from being free and being a part of the local wildlife, to be caged.
 
Yes, we may have been a little naïve in the beginning, but we have done our best to rectify this . From the moment we found a little sick bird to this day, everything we have done for him has been done with pure intentions,  and just the absolute joy of sharing this beautiful interspecies friendship that we were so honoured to witness.

These animals have helped so many people through some of the hardest time of their lives from Covid lockdowns to the Ukraine war floods and earthquakes cancer and more all around the world.
 
DESI decided to remove a bird from the wild and put it in a cage just blows my mind.
Why not work together and come up with a positive solution ?
 
There is a concerned from the DESI we did this to make money from a wild bird . This was not my intention at all , I’m a photographer and artist, one who took extremely cute photos of animals together , utilising my talents to make people happy. That was the only intent. No one is concerned about Richard Attenborough or any of the wildlife documentary makers selling video and film to TV stations or for books. My work capturing the images is just a very miniature home-made version of the same thing, that people can watch for free.
 
You can help us in the fight to return Molly the Magpie home, by writing an email to the below office and asking them to open an investigation into the DESI officers handling of this situation.

We are asking why a wild Magpie can’t decide for himself where he wants to live and who he wants to spend his time with.
 
 
Put email address of your local MP office here

Local MP Michael Crandon 
coomera@parliament.qld.gov.au

Department of Environment , science and innovation - James Merrick director general 
directorgeneral@des.qld.gov.au