Washington man, Richard J. Atkinson, who killed bird with fork gets 6 months

EVERETT, WA - A 63-year-old Everett, Wash., man has been sentenced to six months in jail for fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend's parrot with a serving fork.

The Daily Herald reports that Richard J. Atkinson pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and domestic-violence malicious mischief in the Aug. 19 attack.

In a letter to the newspaper in September, the woman said she had the parrot, Bailey, for 18 years.

Defense lawyer William Steffener said at Tuesday's sentencing that his client doesn't remember what happened, but he may have mixed anti-anxiety medication with whiskey and slipped into a blacked-out rage.

Snohomish County Superior Court Judge George Appel ordered Atkinson to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. He also has to pay the woman for her parrot and destroyed belongings, and he can't own any animals for five years.