this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2026

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325

An Iowa man built his six-inch parakeet a miniature submarine so the bird could join him underwater in the Bahamas — the homemade capsule used a paintball air tank, safety valves and an oxygen monitor (spacedaily.com)

submitted 6 days ago by homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world to c/upliftingnews@lemmy.world

30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This entire article is gold:

The bird is called Bebe

Bebe was fine. He was there for 15 minutes, and there was a lot of practice, safety, and care. Bebe is also used to shenanigans of all sorts

The submarine is called the Bebosphere

'Stephen Lawyer, who really is a lawyer'

His wife is called Cher

People do the most beautiful unhinged shit with paintball cylinders

Bebe answers phonecalls

Bebe's other hobbies include indoor cycling, outdoor cycling, and skydiving

Precisely none of this was AI

What a treasure to be the person writing this story, congratulations Mr. Moran

Video here

all 31 comments

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 99 points 6 days ago (3 children)

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 21 points 6 days ago

Love that body language. It looks very interested but not panicked.

[–] TrackenDaKracken@lemmy.world 25 points 6 days ago

I'd have tied a string to it.

[–] Malica@lemmy.zip 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Oh I'm an idiot

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 12 points 6 days ago

If you were thinking the bird would be wearing a diving helmet, you are not alone. I feel ripped of that it's a submarine.

[–] Stolas@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 days ago

I'm so happy for the bird. I would love do something like this for my cat but I don't think he'd appreciate it.

[–] richardisaguy@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago (2 children)

The poor bird looks so confused - i don't think his ancestors from the wild evolved to see all of this

[–] semisimian@startrek.website 15 points 6 days ago

I think of this every time I feed my dog the last of the tuna can: a wolf chasing down a fish at 60 mph.

[–] Soggy@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That's not the body language of a distressed parakeet.

[–] richardisaguy@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Being distressed is not being confused

[–] Soggy@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

"Poor bird" implies the animal is having a bad time.

[–] Technus@lemmy.zip 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

This is a recycled story from April, though.

[–] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 5 points 5 days ago

New to me 🤷‍♂️

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip -3 points 5 days ago

Why is this uplifting? Poor birb.

[+] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com -47 points 6 days ago (5 children)

This is animal cruelty. Let the bird be a fucking bird.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 42 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

Birds are extremely curious. But go on and guess on its behalf of what it wants

[–] spacegoat@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

I imagine it has so much dopamine pumping through its body that it feels great

[+] dropdrip@lemmy.ml -7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

I don't think any bird would volunteer for this... I would have preferred an experimental setup where it's demonstrated repetitively what would happen to the capsule with an identical capsule nearby, open for any wild bird to willingly--of their own volition--get into and seal the hatch behind themselves. How many birds would do it? I guess we'll never know.

Regardless, continue enslaving animals for your own selfish entertainment.

[–] Zoot@reddthat.com 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You should probably read the article then, since a bird did volunteer to do this

[–] dropdrip@lemmy.ml -2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

No, it didn't.

Lawyer sealed Bebe into the capsule in a sink at home and then in the bathtub, with his wife Cher helping test the rig...

No where in the article does it describe the bird as having an active role in any of the activities it was subjected to.

It does document historical abuse of birds though:

It is the same trait behind the old miner’s habit of carrying a caged canary underground: birds are famously quick to show the effects of bad air, long before it would register with the people around them.

This is an abused bird that's imprinted on a human due to that abusive-environment. Its slaver has a habit of forcing it into novel situations.

Animals should be with their own kind. This is an article about a bird-slaver playing with his "property". This is most certainly depressing news.

[–] Zoot@reddthat.com 3 points 4 days ago

Go read the very bottom, all of it, where it explicitly says how the bird itself chooses to enter the capsule, repeatedly, and even chose the site for diving.

I know this is a very sore subject for many, especially for someone calling pets a slave, but the bird absolutely did choose and seemingly had fun.

We can't know what animals feel, or what's truly going on in their head. We can study their reactions, but what if that reaction shows they're happy? Would you still accept that?

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Regardless, continue enslaving animals for your own selfish entertainment.

Kinda undermines the attempt at sounding objective. Just weirdly toss out some awful accusation as if you know everyone is guilty of that in the thread but you.

[+] dropdrip@lemmy.ml -7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

It's a statement of facts, not an accusation. Pet owners (animal slavers) are demented (mentally-ill)--that's an accusation I stand by. The fact that you find that statement an "accusation" and "weird" betrays your cultural-biases. Why do you think it's acceptable to enslave animals--why do you think you have a right to do that?

The majority of people do not enslave animals. I would guess it to be a minority who actively engage in the practice. I'm curious now. I'll edit this after I've found some data...

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association 43.7% of American households own a dog and 34.1% own a cat. Isolated that does indeed indicate a minority (though large) are animal-slavers. The figures as presented are probably biased (coming from a business-representative body that profits from animal-slavers) and the households that both own dogs and cats are probably represented twice.

Only 2% of American households choose to enslave birds--that is a minority. I'm not surprised as enslaving birds is particularly depressing. I would accuse bird-slavers of being sadistic as in this species it is extraordinarily cruel. My father and grandfather were bird-slavers and they were both sadistic and cruel people. My curiosity has been sated.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

Stopped reading at the second sentence. This is pretty clearly an expression of mental illness itself.

[–] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 24 points 6 days ago

Depending on how it was raised, there's a decent chance it imprinted on humans, and therefore identifies as one, and would be extremely offended that you are saying it can't be one

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 15 points 6 days ago

And it is suffering how, exactly?

[–] Janx@piefed.social 8 points 6 days ago

Maybe it wants to be a bird pretending to be a fishie? You don't know...

[–] antianarchist@sopuli.xyz 4 points 5 days ago

RIP Laika