Animal husbandry – Confining or housing – Birdhouse
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-26
2001-11-06
Jordan, Charles T. (Department: 3644)
Animal husbandry
Confining or housing
Birdhouse
C119S428000, C119S452000, C119S461000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06311643
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the field of pet enclosures. More particularly, it pertains to a singular type of animal enclosure, such as a small animal cage or bird cage, that is prefabricated from a flat sheet of stiff material, such as paper or plastic, stamped, die cut and folded to provide a plurality of cage surfaces and capable of assembly with a metal grate to form the complete enclosure. Before assembly, the flat sheet may be stacked to provide a source of numerous cages storable in a small area.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Her Beauty Was Sold for an Old Man's Gold, She's a Bird in a Gilded Cage
This beautiful sentiment from Arthur J. Lamb's poem, “
A Bird in a Gilded Cage
” [c. 1900] reflects the public's general and continuing interest in small birds (and other animals) that are bought and sold at trade shows, pet stores, bird farms, and the like. While the birds are generally grouped in large cages for public view, individual cages are necessary to transfer or to house the singles or pairs of birds sold or otherwise traded. The problem lies in the need for so much volume in which to store individual bird cages in cars, trucks, and at the source of the birds.
Each cage occupies volume, empty volume when not in use, and a plurality of these cages can and often does strain the volume of automobiles, trucks and other vehicles that transport many of these cages to and from a source of birds. For instance, a 12″×12″×12″ fully assembled cage occupies one cubic foot of volume. Rarely are there large flat surfaces on which to accurately stack such cages for transport, so that three or four cages on a car seat, stacked two or three high are all that can be transported in a typical compact car or truck cab at any one time. Such a minimal number of assembled cages restricts the ability of the bird seller to market more than a few birds at any one time before running out of transport cages that are given or sold to the purchaser of the bird.
Some bird cages are able to be transported in disassembled configuration and later assembled at the bird show, or sale mart. However, for the most part, these types of cages are made with strong wire grates to thwart the flight of a newly purchased bird from the cage and possibly from the transport vehicle. Hence, these cages are expensive because of the materials of construction, the significant effort to assemble them, and generally are not used as the final cage for the bird in the home thus resulting in a waste of this material. These cages are often not disassembled following the trip home, because of the presence of fecal matter in the cage from the bird, and are thus generally stored in fully assembled form to be discarded at a later time.
While it is necessary for at least some surfaces of a cage to remain open to the public, to display the bird and allow the potential purchaser to view the bird, talk to it, and begin to bond with it, (and the bird to do the same), and for the bird to breathe during transportation from the purchase point to the home, the inventors have found it necessary for only one such surface to remain open to public view. This allows the balance of the surfaces of the cage to remain opaque and thus capable of manufacture from inexpensive material such as paper or plastic. Further, the inventors have found that the balance of the surfaces of the cage can be conveniently made from a single sheet of low-cost paper or plastic that is stiffened by known means to provide an economical sheet of material storable in a stack in unassembled form and later assembled with one or more stiff grates to form a light-weight, but strong, cage having at least one see-through surface. The cages are thus made of inexpensive material, able to be stored in large quantities in minimum space, and are later able to be assembled into a large number of transport bird show cages.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention is a prefabricated fully assemblable animal (preferably bird) enclosure or cage made of a flat, stackable sheet of stiff material, the sheet preferably defmed by the combination of two outer sheets of thin material held in closely spaced-apart arrangement by a plurality of parallel, spaced-apart cross-ribs. The invention includes a rectangular panel, formed centrally in the sheet that is bounded by four straight prefold marginal depressions, each defining respectively a top margin, opposed side margins and a bottom margin, arranged orthogonal to each other and joined at their intersecting terminal ends to form a center panel of the enclosure. Further included are first and second side panels extending outward from the central panel. Finally, a top panel and, separately, a bottom panel extend respectively outward from the central panel for folding toward each other in parallel arrangement to form respectively the top and bottom panels of the cage. A wide, short tab extends from a straight prefold marginal depression formed in the central panel, for bending upward into parallel arrangement with the center side panel to form a doubler for retaining a see-through grate in the enclosure. A grate, comprising a plurality of small diameter stiff wires held in spaced-apart arrangement by at least one, larger-diameter support wire and defmed by enclosed top, bottom, and opposed side marginal edges for assembly with the folded sheet of stiff material in the side panels, completes the rectangular geometric enclosure.
Accordingly, the main object of this invention is a prefabricated, fully assemblable animal (preferably bird) cage made of a flat, stackable sheet of stiff material and a grate containing a planar area, the two components capable of being stored and/or carried in unassembled form in great quantities in a minimum amount of space. Other objects of the invention include a prefabricated bird cage made of inexpensive materials that is easy to assemble and disassemble and that may be easily and quickly cleaned for reuse. The enclosure is designed to have all orthogonal joints between front, rear, side, top and bottom panels sealed with flaps, tabs and the like to prevent escape of animals therefrom. The sheet is made of inexpensive material and is lightweight, flat, extremely strong, and contains prefold depressions as well as die-stamped cut-outs for easy bending and folding. The inexpensive sheet material is easily capable of stamping, impressing and die-cutting, at low cost, to provide an economical basis for the cages so that they may be purchased by persons of widely varying economic status. The materials making up the invention are non-toxic to animals and humans, and the enclosure insures that the bird or other animal will not be able to escape following assembly of the cage.
These and other objects of the invention will become more clear when one reads the following specification, taken together with the drawings that are attached hereto. The scope of protection sought by the inventors may be gleaned from a fair reading of the Claims that conclude this specification.
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Christian George T.
Huntington Sally
Jordan Charles T.
Murphey John K.
Nelson Judith A.
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