If a parrot witnessed a murder, should it be allowed to testify?

Laurel Braitman says it's "extremely likely" that Bud, an African Grey parrot is repeating the last words of his long-time owner. 

About a year ago, Bud's owner Martin Duram was shot dead in his home. Since then, Bud has taken to repeating the phrase "Don't f---ing shoot!" Duram's family believe Bud witnessed what happened and might be trying to tell people about it.

And Braitman, a best-selling author, and a Writer-in-Residence at the Center for Biomedical Ethics at the Stanford University School of Medicine, says it's worth hearing Bud out.

"Parrots are really good mimics of us and the sounds we make," she tells host Brent Bambury on CBC Radio's Day 6. "Parrots use language to share their desires and explain things around them and get what they need, just like we do."

I don't want to go to prison based on the testimony of a parrot. But parrots definitely can be evidence.- Laurel Braitman, Writer-in-Residence at the Center for Biomedical Ethics at the Stanford University School of Medicine

Braitman says it's true we can't know what a parrot is trying to do with the language they're using at any given time. 

"But I don't think that means it's not useful," she tells Bambury. "I do think in this case, Bud could be a kind of feathered, living tape recorder where he's just repeating something he heard. It doesn't really matter why he's repeating it."

Could a parrot take the stand?

Here's where things start to break down. If you wanted Bud's words to be part of the legal record, he'd have to testify as a witness and be cross-examined, or at least have his words entered as evidence. 

"Parrots really can't be witnesses in court," Braitman says. "I don't want to go to prison based on the testimony of a parrot. But parrots definitely can be evidence." 

As to how that might work, she says there's already a model that could be adapted. 

"There've been cases of human three-year-olds taking the stand who surely don't understand the concept of pergury and don't understand the legal system and yet we allow them to have their say in court," Braitman says. "So I think there could be some kind of special category for speaking animals where there was room for us to bring in what they had to say in some fashion or another without cross examination, just like we do with human children."