Andrew Jackson’s parrot, Polly, swore so much during his funeral it had to be forcible removed from the proceedings. Unbelievable and shocking, but true.
Andrew Jackson hardly needs an introduction, but his swearing parrot, Polly on the other hand might. For those who don’t know, Andrew Jackson was a famed US military leader who in later life became the seventh president of the United States. He was well known and respected as a military leader, but by all accounts, he had a temper. Perhaps it was his military life and temper that rubbed off onto his pet parrot.
Andrew Jackson’s parrot taught to swear
Know you probably know that a parrot will only ever say words that they are taught to say. They will not utter a word that they have not heard. Andrew Jacksons pet parrot, Polly, was taught to swear. Could you imagine such a thing today? It would be completely unheard of. While there is no documentation available today that confirms one hundred percent that he taught his bird to swear, evidence must surely point to its owner. Who else would have had as much access to the bird, and if he was offended by its words he would have surely disposed of it. Unfortunately his parrot didn’t just swear, it swore like a sailor. This level of swearing became apparent during his funeral. According to many witnesses, Andrew Jacksons parrot, Polly, became quite upset with all of the commotion and began to swear, quite a lot. The level of profanity reached a point where the parrot had to be removed from the funeral proceedings.
But Andrew Jackson didn’t only have a swearing parrot as a pet. He owned pets that are used for a sport that is frowned upon today. We are talking about fighting birds. Oddly enough, during his time it would have been much more acceptable to own fighting birds than to own a swearing, antisocial parrot.
