A statement to Potsdam police says a small bird was tortured by college students.

Three of them have been charged with petit larceny, but not with any crime connected to the alleged torture.

The statement comes from a student who did not witness the torture, but says he was told of it by one of the Clarkson University students involved.

In contrast, a statement from one of the students says they released the bird.

The three, Mathew Lyndaker, 21, of Copenhagen, John Breckels III of Potsdam and Alan Grove of Bothell, Washington face charges of petit larceny for allegedly taking the bird without permission.

The university is conducting its own investigation into the alleged bird torture incident.

The bird - a Zebra Finch - was purchased at a Canton pet store and later given to a student named Juan Barbosa, who lives in Ormsby House dormitory.

Barbosa described to police how he got the bird as part of an April Fool's Day prank, and kept the bird for more than a week.

He eventually got sick of the bird's chirping, and planned to give it back to the person who gave him the finch.

Barbosa recalled sitting in the dormitory lounge with Lyndaker, Breckels, Grove and another person.

"We were talking about the bird and someone I don't know said I wonder if we could scare the bird to death by yelling at it," he said in his statement to police.

The group began yelling things at the bird like "You have feathers" and people were laughing, Barbosa recalled.

But then, he said, the mood changed.

One of the students wondered "if we lock it in the trunk of a car and turn up the subs (those booming speakers you hear coming from some cars) if it would kill the bird."

"We were joking about killng the bird by yelling at it, but I didn't want anything to do with trying to kill the finch," according to Barbosa's statement.

"I went back to my room and my room mate asked where the guys were going. I told him I think they are legitimately going to try and kill the finch."

About a week later, Barbosa confronted two of the men about the bird.

"After leaving their room with the bird, (they) went to John's car and locked it in the trunk."

"Once in the trunk, they turned on the car's stereo and cranked up the volume trying to kill the bird."

"When they opened the trunk the finch was still alive. Alan then said he took his blow gun and shot a dart into the finch while it was still in its cage. He then said the finch looked as if it was still moving so they used a homemade stun glove to try and shock the finch to death."

"Alan said they were not sure if the finch was still alive or not at that point so he shot it again with the blow gun to make sure it was dead," according to Barbosa's statement.

Another person also gave police a statement in which Grove allegedly admits to using a 'blow gun.'

Lyndaker's statement is much different. He told police the group "walked out of the dorm and let it go near to rock wall by the dumpsters. After that we threw the cage in the dumpster and went back inside." 

Both police and Clarkson University staff are investigating.

(Our photograph comes from the Wikimedia Commons, and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.)