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1994 Buerattan, Lilawattie June 5,1994; Loxahatchee 36 YO
Topic Started: Dec 3 2006, 04:08 PM (707 Views)
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http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/buer...lilawattie.html


Lilawattie Buerattan


Above: Buerattan, circa 1994


Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

Missing Since: June 5, 1994 from Loxahatchee, Florida
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: March 23, 1958
Age: 36 years old
Height and Weight: 5'5, 115 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Black hair, brown eyes. Buerattan's ears are pierced. Her nickname is Lila. Some agencies may spell her last name "Bueratian."


Details of Disappearance

Buerattan was a breeder of exotic birds on a ranch in Loxahatchee, Florida in 1994. She worked with her nephew, Bhagwaniala Lall, who was the birds' primary caregiver. Lall acted as the main businessperson. Their family in Guyana had an established business importing wild birds, but Lall and Buerattan began breeding the birds instead when the United States tightened laws regarding imports in 1993. Lall and Buerrattan were said to be private people who kept their business affairs to themselves.
A feed delivery person made a routine stop at their ranch on June 5, 1994. No one greeted the worker at the gate, which was unusual. He knew that Lall and Buerattan did not stock reserve feed for the birds, so the worker left the boxes at the gate. The feed was unclaimed when he returned the following day and he alerted authorities. Investigators did not search the ranch until June 16, 1994, ten days after Lall and Buerattan's absences were reported, due to a bureaucratic error. Authorities discovered hundreds of birds dead or dying of starvation inside the ranch when the search was finally initiated. There was no sign of Buerattan or her nephew. Their ranch hands, Daljeet Gobin and Roland Felix Eyoum, were also missing. Investigators determined that there was approximately $700,000 worth of wild birds inside the ranch. Authorities said it appeared that the property's occupants had been interrupted by unknown individual(s) prior to their disappearances.

Gobin and Eyoum had been employed at the ranch since its opening in 1992. Gobin had handled the daily operations of the ranch at Lall's request. Eyoum was located in New York City, New York on June 18, 1994, 13 days after Lall and Buerattan's disappearances. Eyoum told authorities that Gobin said he witnessed two unidentified men force Lall and Buerattan into a white van at gunpoint. According to Eyoum, Gobin claimed that several birds were also taken into the vehicle as well.

Gobin was apprehended in Georgia on June 7, 1994, two days after Lall and Buerattan vanished. He told authorities he was Lall, then disappeared after being released. Investigators learned Gobin's true identity when he was no longer in custody. It is not known if Gobin is involved with Lall and Buerattan's disappearances, but authorities would like to question him regarding the case. A photo of Gobin is posted below this case summary. He is described as standing 5'5 - 5'7 with black hair and brown eyes. He was approximately 38 years old in 1994. His nickname is Hari. Gobin may use the aliases Harry Gobin and/or Black Gobin. He is originally from Guyana.

Lall and Buerattan's surviving birds were publicly auctioned off in Florida later in 1994. Their family attempted to purchase the birds from the government, but arrangements fell through. Lall and Buerattan's relatives stated that they would never abandon the animals willingly. Foul play is suspected in their disappearances, although authorities did recover a videotape from Lall's van which explained how to change one's identity. Their cases remain unsolved.



Above: Gobin, circa 1994


Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department
561-688-3000



Source Information
Unsolved Mysteries
The Palm Beach Post
Voren's Aviaries Inc.
Florida Department Of Law Enforcement



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http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/in...topic=9830&st=0
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Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office
800-458-8477

Agency Case Number:
94-72124

NCIC Number: M-748403986

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http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1995-05-2...rd-exotic-birds

The Birdman Vanishes
When Bird Breeder Moses Lall And His Aunt Lila Disappeared From Th Eir Loxahatchee Ranch, Witnesses Were Squawking - But Not Talking
May 21, 1995|STORY BY KEVIN DAVIS

For days, hundreds of exotic birds were squawking, cackling and shrieking at a ranch in remote Palm Beach County. Their calls sounded desperate, as if the birds were trying to let someone know that something terrible had happened.

No one had fed the brilliantly colored caged animals in more than a week. A delivery of 40 sacks of sunflower seed and dried corn remained uncollected at the front gate. The smell, especially when the wind kicked up, was nauseating.

Friends and acquaintances of bird breeders Bhagwan "Moses" Lall and his aunt, Lila Buerattan, poked around outside the fenced five-acre ranch on Velasquez Road in Loxahatchee. They feared something was wrong and decided to call authorities.

On June 15, 1994, Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies, state wildlife officials and several local bird breeders went onto the property to investigate. They discovered a horrific sight.

More than 400 birds were dead or dying in their metal and wooden cages, which were lined up in rows in a field behind the three-bedroom ranch house. Beautiful blue and gold macaws, green winged macaws, African Grey parrots, yellow nape Amazons and toucans - worth an estimated $500,000 - had starved or died of dehydration.


"There were lines of dying, starving birds," recalls Howard Voren, a local bird breeder. "And there was the stench of the dead ones."

Another 400 birds had survived by cannibalizing the dead. Three cats, four dogs and three tortoises also were found alive on the compound, apparently surviving by tearing into bags of monkey chow in the car port.

Lall, 31, who operated the ranch, and his aunt Lila, 36, who raised and cared for the birds, were gone. They left no notes, had told no one of plans to leave and had not been seen by anyone for more than a week.

From the outside, the home looked modern and well kept. But the inside was more like a zoo than a residence. Police and wildlife officials found it was stocked with aquariums, incubators, cages and dead baby birds. Except for the most basic human comforts - a couple of mattresses on the floor, a few chairs and tables and some toiletries - the home was strictly for the birds.

Voren, along with animal-control officers, wildlife workers and other breeders, tried to save the hundreds of birds still clinging to life. They cradled them and fed them through plastic tubes. Later, Voren loaded a wheelbarrow with carcasses and buried them.
But there was another more important matter at hand. Where were Lall and Lila? Why did they leave the birds to starve to death? The investigators tried to determine whether this was a case of animal neglect - or murder.

It was possible that Lall had made a trip out of the country, as he often did, to buy exotic animals. But he would have made sure that Lila or his ranch hands remained to care for the expensive birds.

Investigators contacted Mahadai Lall, Moses' mother, in the family's native Guyana. She said she hadn't heard from her son or sister and had no idea where they were, but she was certain they wouldn't have abandoned the birds.

"Lila loved those birds," Mahadai Lall says. "That was her life. It was my son's life."

Detectives suspected foul play and declared the ranch a crime scene. They brought in a dog trained to sniff for bodies. Divers searched a pond and lake. Nothing turned up.


"Why would my son leave something we'd all sweated over for 10 years?" his mother asks. "This is a mystery, a real mystery."

She now assumes that her son and sister were murdered, though she doesn't know who did it or why.

When the investigation began, police entered a world they knew little about, eventually discovering that the business of buying and selling exotic animals is filled with characters as exotic and unpredictable as the animals themselves.

Police have few promising leads, but theories abound.

There is speculation that Lall and Lila staged their own disappearance because of financial problems, that Lall and his aunt were murdered by vindictive competitors, that they were killed by animal smugglers, that Lall was killed because he wasn't able to pay up on a loan.

"Maybe they got in over their heads," suggests Sgt. Ken Deischer of the Sheriff's Office. "There's so much we don't know. You're talking about people with connections to South America, Canada, New York and Africa."

THE LALL FAMILY HAS BEEN breeding and exporting wild animals since the 1970s, having started the business in Guyana on the northern coast of South America.

The family of four sons and three daughters lived in the capital of Georgetown, where they bought animals from local trappers who scoured the jungles for various types of parrots, which are among the most popular birds sold in the United States.
In the early 1980s, Moses Lall moved to Toronto, where his Aunt Lila and an older brother, Praim, lived. He briefly attended college, and even tried modeling. The 5-foot-7-inch Lall believed that his sleek body and Philip Michael Thomas looks could land him some work. But he lost interest in college and his modeling career didn't pan out. So Moses' parents set him up in a business called Malabar Aviary in the United States, where he could receive birds shipped from his family in Guyana, and then sell the animals here.

Lall's mother bought an old warehouse building in Queens, N.Y., where Moses would quarantine imported birds for 30 days to make sure they were not harboring exotic diseases. Once the birds cleared quarantine, they were sold to pet shops.

Moses and his aunt lived on Long Island and commuted to the quarantine station daily. Sometimes they slept inside the building after long days of feeding and caring for the birds.

Business was good, but the Lalls could see that the government was moving toward banning the importation of exotic birds. Importers would have to start breeding birds in the U.S. if they wanted to stay in business.

For the next five years, Lall continued to receive birds from Guyana as he began a breeding operation.

Soon he had several hundred birds and needed more space and a climate better-suited to the birds' tropical roots. He moved some of his birds to South Florida in 1987, settling on a ranch just west of Davie with his brother, Samharaat Lall.

As the number of birds continued to multiply, neighbors complained about the noise and the stench. Broward County officials ordered the Lalls to get rid of the birds or face a fine of $250 per day.

When Lall finally moved his ranch to Loxahatchee in 1992, Aunt Lila came down from Canada to help.

Loxahatchee has become a favored place for aviculturists - bird breeders. There are an estimated 100 breeders living and working in the area, which is the first home of about 50 percent of the exotic birds in the country. Some breeders have small, unlicensed backyard operations, while others operate huge aviaries with hundreds of birds.

State wildlife officials say the Lalls never acquired the proper $25 permit to sell birds.

"We had no idea they were even out there," says Maj. James Reis of the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission. "Breeders are very secretive because of the value of their birds."
Besides Lila, Lall had two ranch hands working for him, Roland Eyoum, who befriended Lall during a trip Moses took to Africa in search of exotic pets, and Daljeet "Harry" Gobin, another native of Guyana. Both men lived in a guest house on the property.

The birds required almost constant attention, so there was no time for socializing. Fellow breeders rarely saw Lall and his aunt and knew little about them.

"These people wanted nothing to do with anyone. It was just their nature," says breeder Howard Voren, who has authored a book on bird care.

"They were not living a high lifestyle," confirms Mahadai Lall, Moses' mother. "They were just feeding the birds. That was their life."

Lila was so in love with the birds that she was reluctant to sell them, and even had some sleeping in her bedroom.


"She used to have beautiful skin," Mahadai says of her sister. "But then from working with the birds she got pecks and scars all over her body."

Moses' younger brother, Ramesh Lall, who is a bird breeder in Homestead, says the only way to succeed in the business is to be consumed by it.

"You have to be there all the time," he says. "You can't trust workers. It's a long-term investment."

When Mahadai asked her sister and son how long they planned to live such isolated lives, they said they hoped to make enough money to return to Guyana in five years.

BRINGING EXOTIC BIRDS TO the U.S. became increasingly difficult in the 1990s as the result of laws backed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The convention is made up of more than 100 countries that have signed a treaty to control the selling and trading of wild animals.

The Wild Bird Conservation Act, which went into effect in October 1992, restricts the importation of hundreds of types of exotic birds, including macaws and cockatoos. The Endangered Species Act also bans importation of exotic birds, mammals and reptiles, making those animals all the more valuable. The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service estimates the illegal trade as a $2 billion-$5 billion-a-year business.

"It's extremely competitive," says Chip Bepler, a special agent with the Fish and Wildlife Service in Miami. "If you can get an animal that no one else has, you can demand a very high price for it."

A single bird, such as a South American blue-and-gold macaw, can fetch as much as $1,200 at a pet store. Scarlet macaws go for about $1,500, and a hyacinth macaw, found only in Brazil, sells for $8,000.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that more than 25,000 birds are smuggled into this country every year. The World Wildlife Fund puts the number at more than 100,000.

As in any illegal trade, there are shady characters and dirty dealings. Many in the bird business believe Moses Lall became entangled in that world, and may have become a victim of it. Investigators say that Lall did in fact have contacts with smugglers.

"Our investigation determined that he was probably involved with illegal dealings of birds," says Lt. John Kianka of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.

The speculation outrages Mahadai Lall. "All of our business is legal," she says. "People may say this and that about us, but it's not true. There are so many lies."

Game officials say they found no evidence of smuggling at the Lalls' ranch.


But, while breeder Howard Voren says legitimate bird breeders compete with smugglers, he admits that some breeders and smugglers get together to sell illegal birds through the legal market.

Voren says he has declined offers to set up a front for smuggling operations. It is possible that the Lalls were approached as well.

"It would be natural for them to have considered it," Voren says, "but I'm not saying they would act on it."

Paul Marolf, a bird breeder in Homestead who has done business with the Lalls, believes Moses had a run-in with dirty dealers.

"I think money was the motive," Marolf says. "He was a businessman, a young kid who came from a different country and didn't trust a lot of people. He probably got ripped off. Maybe he dealt with the wrong people and somebody took care of him."

Voren agrees.

"It was not unusual for Moses to have a lot of cash on him," he notes. "I know that at one time he did a $40,000 cash deal."

Alan Goldberg, a New York lawyer who represented the Lalls when they bought their warehouse in Queens, and has known them for 10 years, suggests that Lall may have been too trusting.

"I don't think Moses was a good judge of character," Goldberg says. "He didn't realize there are people who will do you in for $100. My view is that it was someone who got close to Moses and his business and found him an easy target."

Mahadai Lall believes the two ranch hands who worked for her son are the key to unraveling the mystery. Even before Moses' disappearance, one of them had already proved he was capable of turning on his employer.
IN OCTOBER 1993, LALL told his mother that Daljeet Gobin had stolen $29,000 from the ranch house and driven off in a van to escape.

The Lalls tracked him down in New York City and informed the police. When Moses filed charges, Gobin pleaded with his boss to drop the case. Lall finally agreed, after Gobin said he would return the $26,000 he still had. Lall also allowed Gobin to return to the ranch.

"That was my son's mistake," Mahadai says. "He is very softhearted."

The last time Mahadai heard from Moses was on May 29, 1994. He had called his parents in Guyana to say he was sick with malaria after returning from a trip to Africa. He said he was resting and that Lila was in the kitchen cooking.

Eleven days later, on Thursday, June 9, Darrel Crewe, an employee for Bird Haven, a feed store in Fort Lauderdale, drove to the Lalls' ranch to deliver bird seed. Crewe parked his truck outside the gate and sounded his horn. No one came out, so he unloaded the sacks of feed and left them at the gate.


That same day, Howard Voren says he received an unusual call from Arlene Loucks, a bird broker in Nyack, N.Y. Loucks said that a man from Africa offered a friend of hers some hawk-headed parrots, orange-winged Amazons and African Grey parrots. She asked Voren whether he thought there was a market for the birds.

At first, Loucks didn't mention that the African had said he got the birds from Moses Lall. But Voren sensed that was the case, based on descriptions of the birds.

Loucks said the African claimed that Lall had given him the birds as payment for a deal that had fallen through. Voren got suspicious.

Four days later, Tim Tegreeny, the owner of Bird Haven, was in Loxahatchee on business and decided to drive by the Lalls' ranch. He saw the bags of feed his driver had delivered still sitting at the gate. Tegreeny climbed over the padlocked fence and walked toward the house.

He could hear the cackling and shrieking of birds. In a small open shed he saw cages containing a few dead birds. Bags of unopened feed stood on the floor.

Several yards away, the house seemed quiet and empty. A side door was open.

"Something was not right," Tegreeny recalls.

Tegreeny did not realize there were more dead and dying birds in cages behind the house. He returned to Fort Lauderdale and called Voren and several other breeders. He also contacted the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and the Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission. After talking with Tegreeny, Voren drove over to the ranch.
"I looked the place over from the outside and didn't see anything," Voren recalls. "Then four dogs came running up. They seemed friendly. But the thing that struck me initially was that these dogs were fat and healthy."

Police and wildlife officials did not go to the ranch for several days, apparently unaware of the extent of the problem.

Tegreeny had also called Bob and Liz Johnson, who rescue abused and crippled birds through their non-profit organization, Life Awareness Inc., in Loxahatchee. The Johnsons called the Sheriff's Office, insisting that someone investigate.

Finally, on June 15, two days after Tegreeny had first called the Sheriff's Office, investigators went to the ranch.

"We found no signs of a struggle," Sgt. Ken Deischer says. "No blood. Nothing."


The Sheriff's Office listed the Lalls as missing in the National Crime Information Center, a computer database available to law-enforcement agencies. Next they obtained a search warrant. There was a freshly dug grave on the property that they wanted to investigate. It turned out to be a dead dog.

Then, on June 18, in an incident that may or may not be related to the Lalls' disappearance, a fisherman discovered an estimated 100 dead Congo Greys in a field in western Palm Beach County. The birds, worth approximately $500 apiece, wore bands identifying them as the property of Malabar Aviary - Lall's importing and breeding operation. Police still do not know how the birds got there or how they died.

The 335 birds that were alive when authorities arrived at the Lalls' ranch were taken away by Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control. Mahadai Lall went to court to have the birds returned, but the family now owed the county more than $100,000 for a month's care of the birds. When the family couldn't pay, the birds were auctioned off by judge's order. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also said in court that Moses Lall owed $28,000 in delinquent import fees. It was suggested that he might have skipped out on his debt.

ON JULY 16, DETECTIVES FROM the Sheriff's Office announced a major break in the case. A routine search through the national crime computer showed that Moses Lall had been arrested on a traffic charge in Richmond Hill, Ga., a week before he was reported missing.

Police said they had stopped to assist Lall with a flat tire on his 1992 Plymouth Voyager minivan on Interstate 95. A license check showed that Lall was wanted for driving with a suspended license.
Police took him to jail, but he was released on $318 bail when he complained that there were 10 parrots and 100 turtles in his van that would die if someone didn't care for them.

With Southern hospitality, the police drove Lall to a motel for the night. The next day, they learned he never checked into the motel and never returned to the station to claim the van.

Richmond Hill police sent a mug shot and fingerprints of the man they had arrested to the Sheriff's Office. It turned out it was not Moses Lall at all, but ranch hand Daljeet Gobin.

Besides the birds and reptiles, police found a videotape in the van on how a person can change his identity. It included instructions on how to acquire a new birth certificate and make an official seal. Police are not sure whether the tape belonged to Lall or Gobin.

After learning about Gobin's arrest, Mahadai Lall flew to New York to try to find him or her son, knowing they had connections with dealers in the city. But breeders and importers told Mahadai they hadn't seen either man recently.

Palm Beach County detectives eventually located Roland Eyoum, Lall's other ranch hand, in New York. They questioned him several times over the phone. Eyoum said he had quit working at the ranch two weeks before Moses and Lila were reported missing.

In February, Eyoum was arrested in Miami on animal-smuggling charges. The case had originated at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, where wildlife officials had discovered endangered pancake tortoises from Tanzania concealed in crates with spring hares, which were imported legally.

The shipment of spring hares was destined for the Reptile Service in Deerfield Beach, an exotic pet store owned by a Rian Gittman. The import papers were traced to Euyom, who has refused to talk about the illegal shipment and says he knows nothing about the Lalls' disappearance.

Gittman, who was not charged with any crime, did not respond to messages from Sunshine asking him to discuss the case.

For detectives, the disappearance of Moses and Lila is a matter of sorting through numerous convoluted stories and theories, some fact, some fiction.

"We've never dealt with anything quite like this before," says Lt. John Kianka of the Sheriff's Office. "We're treating it as a homicide, but we don't know for sure whether Lall and his aunt had harm come to them or if they've just flown the coop."

But breeder Howard Voren believes he knows exactly what happened to Moses and Lila.

"They were killed, there's no doubt in my mind," he says. "What happened to them? Well, they were probably just dumped somewhere. Florida has a lot of alligators, and bodies don't last very long around here."

KEVIN DAVIS is a Sun-Sentinel staff writer.
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The Palm Beach Post
June 27, 1994
Topics:
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ANIMAL LOXAHATCHEE
EXOTIC BIRD BREEDING BOOMS IN LOXAHATCHEE

Author: CAROLYN FRETZ

Dateline: LOXAHATCHEE

Article Text:
There's a million-dollar bird-raising industry tucked away in Loxahatchee and about two weeks ago, it got a whole lot more interesting.
Bird buyers and industry regulators estimate that 50 percent of the nation's exotic birds are raised in Loxahatchee - on obscure pieces of land where breeders are known to some of the locals but a virtual secret to the rest of the world.
Like bird raising, bird stealing is big business. And some of the birds raised there, such as Hyacinth Macaws and Goliath Black Palm Cockatoos, are worth more than $10,000 apiece.
And, now - because of the disappearance of the owners of a Velazquez Road farm and the death of hundreds of their birds - it's also the center of local attention.
It's the kind of attention bird breeders don't want.
Birds are becoming popular pets at the same time new restrictions on trafficking in wild birds have gone into effect worldwide. So, just as demand is growing, the traditional source of supply has virtually disappeared, say breeders, buyers and regulators.
As a result, a business that just 20 years ago was based almost exclusively on an occasionally imported commodity is today the foundation of a new domestic agri-industry called aviculture.
Birds that sold for $100 just a few months ago are selling for $500 today, said Dr. Matthew Bond, staff veterinarian at Scott Schubot's Avicultural Breeding and Research Center in Loxahatchee.
Profit margins can be phenomenal, Schubot said. For example, a mated pair of African Grey Parrots costs about $2,000. They can produce as many as 40 to 50 eggs a year, with each baby eventually selling for between $500 and $1,000. Feed, medicine and other care for the lot could be about $10,000 for the year. So on a $12,000 investment a breeder could make as much as $38,000 in profit.
That's the best case scenario, said Howard Voren, a breeder for 20 years and the author of Parrots: Hand Feeding & Nursery Management. As in many financial ventures, the risks are as high as the potential rewards. Insurance is prohibitively expensive - as high as 10 percent of the value of the birds a breeder normally has on hand. And most breeders don't buy it, despite the risk of catastrophic losses from disease and theft.
``You're talking about a pet that can play rough with the family dog, but if you scorch something in a Teflon pan the bird will fall over dead from the fumes,'' said Tim Tegreeny, the owner of Bird Haven, a Fort Lauderdale feed supplier.
Bird breeding is also hard work, Tegreeny said.
``To make good pets the birds have to be hand fed,'' he said. ``Every baby bird is like a newborn. They have to be fed every two hours. It's definitely a profitable business, but it's dirty and messy, too.''
Despite the risks and labor involved, people are flocking to the exotic bird business. Operations of all sizes and types can be found in Loxahatchee - from stay-at-home moms who have a few cages in the back yard to ranch-size operations complete with incubators, nurseries and worldwide markets.
Estimates of how many people are in the business vary wildly. Federal licenses are required to import birds, and birds have to pass through quarantine stations approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But breeding is unregulated nationally - with the exception of that involving endangered species, said Lt. Charles Dennis of the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission.
Florida does require a license to breed birds, and breeders are supposed to keep records of where their birds come from and to whom they sell. But many breeders don't abide by the law, Voren says.
``It's not because they want to operate outside the law,'' he said. ``It's bird breeders paranoia. They don't want anyone to know they have a million dollars worth of birds sitting on their property.''
Dennis, who polices western Palm Beach County, said there are 10 to 15 licensed breeders in Loxahatchee. Tegreeny, however, says he has at least 30 customers within a 6-mile radius there.
Loxahatchee appeals to bird breeders because the climate is perfect for the birds, land is cheap and the bands of bird thieves that plague ranches farther south in Florida and in California haven't become a problem here. Voren estimates the birds raised in Loxahatchee supply 50 percent of the U.S. market.
That market is growing as more people move into apartments and condominiums where the traditional American pets - cats and dogs - are often prohibited.
``They're colorful. You don't have to walk them. And they talk to you!'' Voren said. ``They're also very long-lived. Your pet should easily outlive you.''
With the market growing and prices rising, smuggling operations have also sprung up to circumvent the 1992 Wild Bird Conservation Act, said Jeffrey Toppel, the owner of Topp Flock Aviary in Loxahatchee.
Customs agents find birds in everything from luggage to tires, but some get through. Once they're in Florida the Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission has only nine inspectors to police all the bird farms in Florida, and it's not enough, Dennis said.
Schubot, who only buys birds with origins that are documented, agreed and said the government should spend more money to stop illegal trafficking in exotic birds.
``Since the ban on importation it's gotten to be almost like prohibition out there,'' Schubot said. ``We're contacted sometimes several times a week by people who want to know if we'd like to buy this bird or that bird - no questions asked.''
That darker side of the business may have touched the lives of Bhagwan ``Moses'' Lall and his aunt Lilawattie ``Lila'' Buerattan, local breeders believe. Both vanished from their Velazquez Road farm earlier this month, and, before their disappearance was discovered, hundreds of their birds died from lack of food and water. Authorities began investigating June 15.
Palm Beach County Sheriff's detectives discovered some dead birds inside tool boxes just inside the side door to the house, which was standing open when they arrived.
``Something was going on there, and whatever it was got interrupted,'' Voren said. ``That's what the facts suggest, and you can speculate in several directions from there.''
= Librarian John Jackson and Staff Writer Henry Armijo contributed to this report.
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The Palm Beach Post
June 20, 1994
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PROBE MISSING LOXAHATCHEE

FAMILY WILL AID SEARCH FOR BIRD BUYER, AUNT

Author: CAROLYN FRETZ
Article Text:
Relatives of a man and woman missing from their Loxahatchee bird farm flew from Guyana to South Florida over the weekend to search for clues to explain the disappearance and to assist detectives working on the case.
Mahadai Lall, the mother of Bhagwan ``Moses'' Lall and the sister of Lilawattie ``Lila'' Buerattan, told Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office investigators:
Besides her son and sister, there were two men staying at the ranch - a worker from Guyana and a guest from Africa.
Her son occasionally had as much as $25,000 in cash at the house.
Her son telephoned June 4.
Detectives discovered Moses Lall, 31, and his aunt, Buerattan, 35, missing from their 5-acre Velazquez Road bird breeding farm Wednesday after a delivery man reported that seed he left at the front gate was unused there days later.
Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission officers were the first to enter the property, and they found more than 400 dead parrots, macaws, toucans and other exotic birds in cages behind the house.
Investigators are focusing their efforts on finding Buerattan because acquaintances said she should be at the ranch, said Detective Sgt. Ken Deischer.
``The reports we're getting on him (Moses Lall) are that he was supposed to be out of the country,'' Deischer said. ``So we're not really sure he's missing.''
Bird experts said the retail value of the dead birds is about $500,000, but, since the deserted farm was discovered, more birds have died - pushing the loss figure even higher.
Mahadai Lall stressed that her son would never willingly abandon his investment, and her sister would never leave the birds she loved.
The two men who were staying at the ranch are also missing, Mahadai Lall said. The ranch hand from Guyana is Daljeet ``Harry'' Gobin. He is in his mid-40s, Lall estimated.
She doesn't know the name of the guest her son met while he was on a bird-buying trip in Africa. That man, thought to be in his mid-30s, has called Lall's Deerfield Beach veterinarian twice this month to ask for news about Moses Lall, the doctor said.
Lall took cash when he went on bird-buying trips, and he was planning to travel this month, his mother said.

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The Palm Beach Post
May 17, 1996
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Index Terms:
Brief
BRIEFLY



Article Text:
Palm Beach County can keep $170,000 from auctioning exotic birds in 1994, an appeals panel has ruled. The county had seized the 347 birds from a Loxahatchee ranch in 1994 after the disappearance of the ranch owner, Bhagwan "Moses" Lall and his aunt, Lilawattie "Lila" Buerattan. Mahadai Lall, Moses Lall's mother, challenged a 1995 county court decision awarding the auction money to the county, but a panel of three circuit judges upheld the lower court ruling this month.
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The Palm Beach Post
July 19, 1994

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MISSING LOXAHATCHEE PROBE

MISSING RANCH WORKER SPOTTED

Author: CAROLYN FRETZ
Article Text:
A ranch hand who worked at a bird farm where hundreds of parrots were found dead or dying was in New York last month trying to sell exotic birds for about a third of what they're worth, investigators said Monday.
Roland Eyoum, a native of Africa who was staying at Bhagwan ``Moses'' Lall's 5-acre bird farm on Velazquez Road in Loxahatchee, was in New York on June 9 with several exotic birds, said Howard Voren, a Loxahatchee bird breeder.
Eyoum has been missing since authorities began investigating Lall's disappearance.
Also Monday, investigators said they are not sure if a man stopped in Georgia and charged with driving with a suspended license was Lall, even though the man was carrying Lall's identification and booked under Lall's name.
Georgia authorities have sent the man's photograph and fingerprints to investigators here so detectives can determine if it is Lall.
The man stopped in Georgia June 7 was 5-feet-7 and dark skinned, said Richmond Hill Police Chief Billy Reynolds.
Lall is 5-feet-8 and light skinned.
Lall, 31, and his aunt Lilawattie ``Lila'' Buerattan, 35, have been listed as missing since mid-June, when neighbors called police to say the farm looked deserted.
When officers went onto the property, they found more than 400 dead birds worth more than $500,000 and more than 300 critically ill from lack of food and water.
Shortly after Lall was last seen, Eyoum contacted an exotic animal broker in New York and offered to sell the birds for about a third of their market value.
She called Voren to see if he would buy the birds.
``The story I got was that he (Eyoum) had been involved with Moses in a reptile deal that went bad,'' Voren said.
``Moses owed him some money and paid him off in birds.''
Voren called Palm Beach County investigators and they have been trying to reach Eyoum in New York, Detective Sgt. Ken Deischer said.
Lall's mother said she spoke to her son from their native Guyana June 4.
After the man booked as Lall made bond in Georgia, he fled, leaving behind a van filled with parrots and turtles.
He never returned for a court hearing scheduled for July 11.
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Miami Herald, The (FL)
June 24, 1994

ABANDONED BIRDS MAY MOVE SOUTH

Author: LORI ROZSA Herald Staff Writer



Article Text:
The exotic birds that survived two weeks of being left unattended may find a new home in Homestead, Palm Beach County Animal Care officials said Thursday.
The mother of the man who owns the birds is negotiating with the county to moved the 345 delicate animals to the Blue Ribbon Pet Farm in southern Dade County.
Her son, Bhagwan "Moses" Lall, and her sister, Lila Buerattan, are missing. Investigators are still searching for clues to their disappearance.
The pair kept more than 700 expensive, exotic birds at their Loxahatchee home. They haven't been heard from since June 4. State game officers found more than half the birds dead from dehydration and starvation last week. The rest were taken to the county's animal pound.
Before Mahadi Lall can take custody of her son's birds, she first must put up a $250,000 bond and also prove that she has a right to the birds, Animal Care officer Lt. Gina DiPace said.
Lall is being charged $3,450 a day -- $10 for each of the surviving birds -- for the upkeep of the brightly feathered macaws, parrots and other birds. When all were living, they were worth more than $500,000.
The $10 charge is the standard fee the county charges to owners of any animals they house.
"It's up in the air right now," DiPace said about the bird transfer. "They were originally given until 5 o'clock Friday to move the birds out of here."
David George, Mahadi Lall's attorney, declined to discuss his negotiations with the county.
"Mrs. Lall wants to make sure her son and sister are OK first. That's her number one priority," George said. "She also wants to make sure that when her son turns up, he has something to come back to."
George said Lall and Buerattan took "impeccable care" of their birds. State game officers who investigated Lall and his birds when he lived in Broward County three years ago found nothing wrong.
The Blue Ribbon Pet Farm in Homestead has been owned for 45 years by John Marolf, who has bought birds from Lall before. Marolf has about 1,000 exotic birds at the farm. Most of his cages were blown away in Hurricane Andrew. His birds survived, though, because he took them inside his house.
Marolf said Mahadi Lall, who lives in Guyana, is well known to exotic bird breeders. He offered her five acres to keep the birds on. Marolf said he has a security system to protect the birds from theft.
"I sent word that I was ready, willing and able to help her," Marolf said Thursday. "But I don't know if the county will give the birds to her."
Meanwhile, volunteers who have helped nurse the birds back to health say they'd like to buy them.
"I don't know if we could raise the money, though," said Bob Johnson of the Life Awareness animal rescue group. "Those birds sold in one lot would probably bring $100,000 to $150,000."
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The Palm Beach Post
June 18, 1994
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ANIMAL TELEPHONE DEATH BUSINESS INDUSTRY

DEATHS AT BIRD FARM SHROUDED IN MYSTERY

Author: JENNY STALETOVICH Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Dateline: LOXAHATCHEE
Article Text:
The disappearance of a man and his aunt from a rural bird farm where investigators discovered hundreds of dead parrots this week and a shallow grave remained a mystery Friday.
Investigators, who rushed to obtain a search warrant and unearth the grave, succeeded late Friday only to discover a dead black dog.
``We just don't know what's taken place here,'' said Palm Beach County sheriff's spokesman Bob Ferrell. ``We're back to square one.''
Moses Lall, also known as Bhagwanlall, 31, and his aunt, Lila Buerattan, 35, were last seen at the house on Velazquez Road on May 29 when another bird dealer visited to discuss buying birds, said sheriff's Lt. John Kianka. Three days later the man spoke to Lall on the phone, who mentioned leaving for Africa in several days.
Even if Lall left, neighbors and friends said his aunt would have remained behind to care for the birds. The death of so many birds baffled them.
Lall, a native of Guyana, raised parrots in Broward County before moving to Loxahatchee in December 1992. He was licensed to import birds to the United States from Guyana but not to breed them, officials said. Lall traveled often in search of birds and spent time at another home in Garden City, N.Y., said Luis Morales, who was in the process of selling the house to Buerattan for $250,000.
For four months in 1993, Morales and his family occupied a guest house on the property while Lall and his aunt lived in the main house.
``She didn't let us in. She don't let nobody in,'' Morales said of the reclusive pair. ``They said please stay away from the (the birds) because they get nervous.''
Sheriff's deputies were called to the house on Wednesday when a delivery man climbed a fence and found feed delivered days earlier still unopened. When they arrived, deputies found about 400 dead birds in cages throughout the house and in cages lining the west side of the property. Starved baby parrots filled aquariums in the house, said Lt. John Kianka.
Bob Johnson, a breeder and founder of a nonprofit animal care group, arrived Thursday to help with the birds and was sickened by what he saw.
``The quality of food they were getting was very bad. It's like you trying to live on a diet of sunflower seeds,'' he said. ``They wouldn't have lived five years and these birds should live to be 100 years old.''
Johnson said several dead birds were found wrapped in towels in small sealed boxes and a tool box. He suspected the birds may have died after they were drugged to slow their metabolism, stuffed into the boxes and smuggled into the country. The birds sell to pet stores for about $800 and then are resold by the stores for up to $2,000, he said.
``They can make as much money smuggling birds as dope, but if you get caught smuggling birds, it's a $500 fine,'' he said. ''If you get caught smuggling dope, they take your house.''
About 350 birds have survived and are being cared for at Palm County Animal Care and Control on Belvedere Road.
Meanwhile, detectives continue to search for Lall, his aunt and a white 1992 Plymouth Voyager van missing from the property and registered to Lall. Anyone with information should contact Detective Glen Wescott at 688-4157.
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