(Radio Iowa) – The Animal Rescue League helped Des Moines police seize several exotic birds from a home Tuesday. A-R-L director of animal services, Joe Stafford, says there were 11 birds removed. “Small, medium, large exotic birds just living in essentially complete filth — I mean the house was just covered in trash,” Stafford says, “rat droppings and just a large accumulation of stuff.” Stafford says there were seven cockatoos, two Amazon parrots and two cockatiels. All of the birds need medical attention.

“They’re in really rough shape. One of the cockatoos’ beaks was so severely overgrown that it almost came clear around and touched her breast. That is something that is extremely problematic for exotic birds — because you can’t really eat properly,” according to Stafford. “Another bird’s nails were so long they curled completely into a circle. again making it difficult for her to grip anything — whether that be food or to perch properly.” He says another bird has plucked some of its feathers — which is an indication they had not gotten proper care in some time.

Stafford believes the birds can recover with the proper care. “Certainly, we are hopeful. I mean we always have a guarded prognosis with these birds. They are going to require very intensive care — and probably some specialty care… we may have to have some specialists come in that deal with these things a on a more deep level, have a lot more experience,” Stafford says. Stafford says some of the birds are expensive to buy and it can be expensive to take care of them properly.

He says the A-R-L is working with Des Moines police on getting the birds permanently taken away from the owner. “Both sides are given an opportunity of course to share their perspective on that. Those proceedings I can tell you have been started,” Stafford says, “and we’ll see where that goes. Whether the owner wants to be cooperative and realizes she was in over her head and maybe wasn’t providing the best care, she can choose to relinquish them — and if not — we’ll go to court.”

The name of the owner of the birds has not been released.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The federal government has closed a coronavirus testing lab in Missouri over concerns about test accuracy. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services earlier this week suspended Gamma Healthcare’s Poplar Bluff license, and a federal judge on Wednesday ruled he won’t step in to keep the lab open. The Poplar Bluff lab tested for coronavirus at around 2,500 nursing homes in 11 states. Those states are Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

Health officials say two testing machines at the lab operated for months producing false-negatives on over a quarter of known-positive COVID-19 samples. Lawyers for the lab say it’s fixed the issues and should be allowed to stay open.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s number of coronavirus cases, deaths and hospitalizations continue to surge higher as medical professionals begin to worry that hospitals could be overwhelmed with patients if no action is taken to slow the virus spread. Iowa hospitals had 596 coronavirus patients on Thursday, by far the highest number so far in Iowa and the 113 patients admitted in the past 24 hours also was the highest seen since the virus surfaced in Iowa in March.

Doctors and hospital officials in Iowa are preparing for a system overrun by COVID patients by talking about how to transfer patients between hospitals and enacting surge plans that could turn non-hospital facilities into overflow bed capacity.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Iowa man has been convicted of murder in the 2018 stabbing death of a Bellevue man during a botched robbery. The Omaha World-Herald reports that 31-year-old Raymond Davis, of Des Moines, was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit robbery and a weapons count in the death of 39-year-old Brent Quigley. Davis is one of five people charged in Quigley’s death.

Police say Davis and another man, Christopher Reagan, fatally stabbed Quigley at his home in June 2018 as part of a plan to steal drugs and money from Quigley. Reagan was sentenced to 100 years to life in prison in June. Davis faces life in prison when he’s sentenced at a later date.