Argh, such an unpleasant subject to be writing about! I recently had the unfortunate experience of learning about bird abuse first-hand, from someone I associated with. This person had told me she once had a parakeet that bit her everytime she tried to change the water or feed dish, and it made her mad. So mad one day that she put the cage in the shower and turned it on. Just left the bird in the shower with the water running. I asked her what happened to the bird. She said, "oh it probably died from having a heart attack from the shower." Then I learned she had two lovebirds that she left outside, in a cage. She said they bit her too, so she would flick her finger at their beaks. That would be like you and me getting a slap in the face. It is burning me up to be typing this now, but I have to tell you how being a parrot owner has affected me.
Anyway, I asked her about the lovebirds. I asked her to sell them to me. She was glad to get rid of them. They came to me in a filthy cage with a filthy water bowl crusted with feces, tiny food dish, no toys and no cuttlebone. Nothing. Two perches and bare wire. I was secretly relieved when she told me she wanted the cage back. Relieved also when I asked her if she was going to get any more birds. She said no, the cage was going to her cousin, who wanted cockatiels. I had to find a replacement cage for the loves. I put the cage outside in the meantime, because of the smell. You know it is dirty if a bird cage smells bad. That evening my husband was aghast to find about 20-30 large cockroaches on the cage floor, eating the feces. To think those lovebirds spent most of their time in the cage every night with giant roaches!
Thank God there are people like Deborah Robinson (Scooby's breeder) who offered to find homes for them. She took them to a vet; provided a warm, safe, clean environment with fresh food and water; love and toys for them. She has rescued birds in the past before, finding homes for all of them. Without people like her, this world would be a really cold and mean place, especially for little and big birds.
Some people don't know they are causing intentional harm, like stuffing the bird in a cage that is too small, feeding the bird toxic foods like alcohol and chocolate, smoking in the house, ignoring the bird's need for mental stimulation and play. Some people purchase parrots not having the faintest idea that they are messy. They also make noise, they can bite, they need lots of attention and are fairly high-maintenance. When the bird "acts up" they don't know how to deal with it, so they abuse the bird. Some people are just plain disturbed, like the person who put the bird cage in the shower. I was sickened to read how cruelly some of the birds were treated before they came to The Gabriel Foundation. There was a bio on a white cockatoo that was burned with cigarettes and sprayed with bleach. How sick is that? PLEASE!! Please read this page before you buy! !! Note: THE LOUD sounds will scare you on the page...turn down the speakers! The writer is trying to make a point...a good one at that.
If you want to see the effects of what abuse can look like, please look at the following video from Flying Colors Sanctuary:
We don't hear much about abuse of pets, especially birds, unless it makes the news, like this story about the disturbed, seriously cruel man that put the Quaker in the microwave oven. Because it is so easy to stuff a bird in a cage, they can't run or hide, which makes them easy targets for cruelty.
My neighbor, two doors down used to yell obscenities at his macaw. I would hear him saying, "Shut the F*&K up!!" to the bird. Sometimes other expletives. I wonder how the bird is being treated inside the house. I wonder if he is hitting the bird. UPDATE (July 2002) - it was not a macaw as I had thought, but wow, is it loud...I saw the parrot on the lady of the house's arm, it is a really beautiful male Solomon Island Eclectus, and is being treated well. I don't hear her son yelling at the bird anymore.
Some examples of abuse/abusive situations:
1) Hitting the bird or beak. I had to supress my natural instinct to swat at Scooby everytime he would nip me a little too hard.
2) Neglect. Locking the bird up in a cage without providing toys or excerise or human contact.
3) Improper Living Conditions. Stuffing the bird in a tiny cage, offering no room for wing expansion or moving around freely. Stuffing the bird in a basement with no sunlight. Exposing the bird to extremes in weather conditions. Filthy cage and food bowls. Forcing the bird to share a cage with an aggressive bird that physically maims the secondary bird. I saw a program on animal planet where a cockatoo lost her leg to amputation because of another cockatoo (aggressive male) who chewed her leg to bits.
4) Allowing young children to mistreat the bird. Teasing, harrassing, rough handling of the bird can cause a myriad of problems from feather picking to death. Certain loud animals can also stress out parrots, like the one I heard about: a parrot went to live with two German Shepards that barked at the bird constantly, and the parrot picked all its feathers off.
5) Malnutrition. Feeding the bird an improper diet, not changing the water or food, starving the bird to death (the seed dish may look full, when in reality it was full of empty seed hulls).
6) Not providing medical care when the bird is sick. Sometimes owners don't have a clue until the bird is too sick, as they are masters in disguising their illnesses. But when obvious sickness affects the bird and medical care is withheld, that is abuse.
7) Exposing the bird to a bad environment. Smoking in the home, spraying pesticides and roach killers, air fresheners around the bird, keeping the bird in a garage (carbon monoxide fumes).
8) Yelling and screaming at the bird. If someone is yelling and screaming at the bird, they need to chill out seriously or find a new home for the bird.
9) Punishment of the bird. Putting the bird in a shoebox or dark closet for "time out", withholding food.
10) Releasing the bird into the wild when you no longer want it anymore. The bird will probably die if it doesn't survive starvation, predators and disease. Only harm can be done to the bird and possibly to the environment with the release of pet birds into the wild.
- someone who didn't want them in the first place. Not all folk fall into this category, as some people really learn to love their pets.
- someone with no clue about how to care for parrots and understand the short-comings of possible bird ownership: they can be messy, loud, bite, etc. Do your research first to learn the temperments of different species.
- someone who has no time to care for birds/parrots and neglects them.
- someone who physically causes harm to birds either through direct trauma, exposure to harsh and chemical environments, exposure to aggressive children and other animals.
- someone who sees a parrot as a status symbol and as some kind of exotic decoration to be discarded later with no knowledge or care of the bird. There was a story on the mytoos.com page about a well-to-do owner who had no ideas who to treat parrots. They kept the cockatoo in a cage in the garage, where the bird was exposed to carbon monoxide, which is POISON!
There was a controversial "win a parrot contest" sponsored by Corona Beer. Some folk believe that this kind of blatant "pet giveaway" is very bad and some say the store giving the macaw away in a beer contest is doing everything it can to make sure the owner is "qualified", whatever that means to the store. This is the info I got off rec.pets.birds (quoted by the poster)
"Please see this offensive ad at www.wrat.com
A local radio station, WRAT based in Belmar, N.J. ( promotions
director Sjonvall, Doug (DS13444) WRAT-FM 1731 Main Street South
Belmar,, NJ 07719 732-681-3800 (FAX) 732-681-5995 ) is offering a live
parrot ( a macaw) as a prize in a contest promotion for Corona beer.
Corona beer contact: estherkinzie@corona.com
The pet store that is donating these birds to the contest. 88 Pet
World 2076 Route 88 Brick, New Jersey 08724 Phone: (732) 899-1920.
Please call these people and protest this inhumane action. The Jeresey
Department of Environmental Prorection should also know your feelings.
908-735-5450"
Note: since 7/14/01 (when I last checked), the contest was over, or the information was no longer on-line. Either someone won the parrot or they pulled the contest. I am leaving this up here as a note however, for information.
This was from PETA's website dated 3-1-2003.
NY Animal Torturer Faces Slap on Wrist
Long Island police arrested Timothy Guider, 18, after an alleged New Year's Eve incident during which he set his family's parakeet afire and posted images of the attack on a Web site. Guider, who was throwing a party in his parents' absence, reportedly coated the bird with hair spray and burned the animal alive, killing her. According to news sources, in addition to posting "[p]hotographs of the bird being burned and a laughing Guider holding [her] charred body," Guider and his friends "also took the dead bird to another party to show it off."
New York's Agriculture and Markets laws define felony cruelty to animals as "intentionally [killing] or intentionally [causing] serious physical injury to a companion animal with aggravated cruelty." The provision defines "aggravated cruelty" as "conduct which is intended to cause extreme physical pain, or is done or carried out in an extremely depraved or sadistic manner," and "companion animal" is defined as "any dog or cat, [or] any other domesticated animal normally maintained in or near the household of the owner or person who cares for such other domesticated animal."
Unbelievably, and despite the law's clear wording, Timothy Guider has been charged with a misdemeanor for this crime. PETA's many calls to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office have gone unreturned, and there is no indication that prosecutors will upgrade this charge. Please urge Suffolk County Attorney Thomas Spota to immediately upgrade Guider's charge to felony cruelty to animals, and remind him why such crimes need to be dealt with swiftly and vigorously (click here to see our related factsheet).
The Honorable Thomas Spota
Suffolk County District Attorney
Suffolk County District AttorneyÕs Office
Building #77 N County Complex
Hauppauge, NY 11787
Fax: 631-853-5117
Copies of all letters should be sent to the assistant prosecutor assigned to this case:
Jeff Langlan, Assistant District Attorney
Suffolk County District Attorney's Office
400 Carleton Ave.
Central Islip, NY 11722
Fax: 631-853-5844
May Timothy Guider's name live on in infamy - here's one page dedicated to keeping this article alive!
Kappa Sigma Fraternity Abuses Animals
PETA has been bombarded with complaints about the most recent case of cruelty to animals involving the Kappa Sigma fraternity.Seven Kappa Sigma members and pledges at Davidson College in Davidson, N.C., John North Moore III, Graham Lambert Hunter,Oscar Hernandez, Thomas Carroll Jeter, George Stephen Tolson, Jacob Charlson, and Andrew MinceyÑwere arrested and chargedwith felony cruelty to animals and conspiracy to commit cruelty to animals after they allegedly lured a white goose away from herfamily with bread crumbs at a local park and then beat her to death with a golf club.
This is the third time in three years that PETA has been alerted to incidents of cruelty to animals involving members of Kappa Sigma. In spring 1999, two members of the Kappa Sigma chapter at Middle Tennessee State University admitted to suspending anopossum from a tree, swinging him, passing him around, and repeatedly slamming him into the tree. Three years later, in October 2002, PETA sent Kappa SigmaÕs Executive Director Mitchell Wilson a video CD that it had received, showing members of the Beta Chi chapter of Kappa Sigma at the University of Missouri at Rolla affixing fireworks and small rockets to the back of a turtle.
In both instances, PETA urged Kappa Sigma to set an example by taking severe disciplinary action against the offenders and to prevent future crimes against animals by Kappa Sigma members by amending the fraternity's mission statement to include language about the humane treatment of animals. Unfortunately, PETA's requests met with silence. What has been the result of thisinaction? On February 7, 2003, seven brothers of the Kappa Sigma chapter at Davidson College coaxed a goose toward them withbread and then beat her to death with a golf clubÑa premeditated, vicious crime.
Every day, PETA warns law-enforcement officers and prosecuting attorneys about the importance of taking crimes against animalsseriously in order to avert repeat offenses and prevent the escalation from crimes against animals to crimes against humans. It's time for Kappa Sigma to take immediate action.
Please call or send a polite letter to Mitchell Wilson, Kappa Sigma's executive director. Urge him to take long-overdue measures toprevent future incidents of animal abuse by revoking the Davidson College chapter's charter and adding language requiring the humane treatment of animals to the fraternity's mission statement:
Mitchell B. Wilson, Executive Director
Kappa Sigma International Memorial Headquarters
2443 Ivy Rd.
Charlottesville, VA 22903
Tel.: 434-295-3193, ext. 111
Fax: 434-296-9557
E-Mail: mailbox@imh.kappasigma.org
All captive animals, big and small, feathered or not, depend on us for food, shelter and love. Caged animals like parrots are especially prone to abuse or neglect. The most common incidence I have heard of is because of biting. Please do research before buying a parrot, or educate anyone you know that wants to buy a parrot that these creatures can be the most wonderful of pets but also need lots of attention and maintenance.
There are many reasons why you can't take care of your bird any longer. Maybe you found a new love interest and the bird is aggressive towards the new person. Maybe there is a new child/baby in the home and suddenly you find that you don't have the time to care for your bird and provide the attention you once did. Perhaps there is a change in financial status, or mental status. Maybe you have become ill or older and unable to care for your bird like you once did. Sometimes it is due to sheer life circumstance beyond your control. Sometimes it is not. That is why I IMPLORE you to consider the many pros/cons of taking care of a parrot. It is not easy. It takes a lot of time, attention, love and the understanding that these animals come from the WILD. They are not your cute cuddly puppy or sweet kitty. These animals are highly intelligent creatures (no offense to your dog or cat) who have a structured, social status/interaction, which is complicated. They communicate by making noises (read: scream and yell), bite for various reasons (sometimes drawing blood), make tons of messes by flinging food and poop everywhere (they have a fast metabolism), and bite and tear things up (to keep their beaks trim and in shape).
If it is because you now have to take two jobs, have become ill, become older (most birds will outlive us), can't deal with the guilt that you no longer can provide your bird with the love and attention, please find a good home for your bird!
Please don't release your bird into the wild. They can die out there. They can proliferate and become pests, endangering native wildlife and species.
Contact your local pet shop/veternarian/breeder to see if they know of someone who can adopt or put the bird up for placement, follow some links below, esp. of Avian Web's links that have state listings of Parrot Rescue/Adoption agencies that can help you.
Email me if you live in Hawaii and need to find a home for your bird you no longer want. I do not rescue any more birds, but I may have some leads for you to follow.
Remember that birds are little lives dependent on everything you do or don't do. Treat them how you as a living being would like to be treated, with clean water and food, a warm safe place and a nurturing environment. If you can't provide that, hopefully you will let someone else take care of the bird.
Flying Colors Bird Sanctuary
Great videos on You Tube!
Avian Protection Society
Please help out. Page not updated regularly, but good info.
Foster Parrots
A rescue organization in Massachusetts - read their cheers and jeers section.
Avian Web's Bird Adoption and Rescue
created 10/01/01 - updated 4/30/07