Karl Marx, the guineafowl recently found in a dazed wander on a Williamsburg sidewalk, desperately needs a home that doesn’t want to eat him. Guineahens are of the same order as pheasants and turkeys. In the wild, these African natives are seed-eating, ground-nesting birds. In capitivity, they are either cooked and eaten, or kept in gardens to eat insects. But Recharger loves them because, unlike every girl he’s ever dated, they are faithful mates.
This in mind, Recharger has contacted every bird-rescue person he knows, all of whom have refused to adopt the bird, though one bird-rescuer is looking into donating Karl to the inmate garden on Rikers Island, where he will live out his days eating insects.
Karl apparently fell off a doomsday truck and wandered until a few tragically-hip Williamsburg types--wanting to do good without having to actually do good--pawned the former Herald Tribune writer off on doggy-hearted Recharger, who took the bird to his ex-dog’s house.
One reason, no one wants Karl is because of the bird flu menace domestic birds may or may not spread. With more than 300 live poulty businesses in the metropolitan area, this is serious stuff. A recurrence of the avian flew epidemic, like the one in 1918 that wiped out an estimated 40 million people worldwide, has been predicted for years. New York health officials, however, assure us that guineahens like Karl--if he did indeed fall off a poultry truck--are not infectious.