“It is estimated …” say Ken Foster and Ralph Brendle in their 2007 US patent “… that a single hunting club or hunting resort may lose over $100,000 a year because of missed hunts due to rainy and damp weather.” The problem which the patent is addressing is primarily that of wet birds. “On wet days, the birds may be prevented from flying due to the moisture matting their feathers down on their wings as well as the excess weight added by the absorption of the water into the feathers. Rainy day hunts may often have to be cancelled due to the fact that these birds cannot fly.“ The solution, according to the inventors, is their : ‘Apparatus and method for waterproofing game birds’which enables the birds to be sprayed with an oil-based ‘waterproofing composition’.
Compare and contrast with US patent 5,493,996,
which describes a : ‘Device for automatically cleaning birds’ “The present invention sets out to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art and notably to provide a device, a cage and a highly effective method of cleaning which requires minimum human intervention. The birds [sic] is properly restrained with his head outside of the cleaning zone, which eliminates risks of injury and drowning.“ “ … the cleaning liquid is a mixture of water and cleaning agent in a proportion of 1 to 5% and preferably 3% for cleaning operations and is ordinary clean water for the rinsing operations.” Thus the invention has the capacity to remove oil from birds (game or non-game, previously waterproofed or otherwise).