Stunned (Re: Bird Letter)

My post Bird Letter has received nearly a thousand views in 2 days.

1,000.

(Update: 2500 in 3 days ?!?! Wow!!)

Holy crap! What this number actually means in completed views, purposeful clicking, actual interest, thoughtful consideration, I have no clue. I just know it’s actually been shared and passed around a bit and i’m so stunned and thankful for that.

My hope is that it simply starts a conversation. Begins some serious contemplation. I am not one to tell someone what to do or what not to do, but at least if I have put this out there, the person who has read it and still goes through with a transaction through a breeder has no reason not to be surprised or claim ignorance for some of the reality of bird ownership.

I would like to think I keyed a thoughtful non-judgmental post about the possibility of considering where something has originated and if a home is a good fit for these animals. I did not include clips of screaming macaws and amazons. Let me tell you, the decibel they can reach is literally deafening. At the risk of an overused word lately, the “literal” is literal.

I have been in a room where a truck drives by, a person walks past, or rain starts and the screaming squawking flapping chaos that ensues is stunning. There are a number of volunteers that have to wear ear plugs. And not because they aren’t used to birds.

I have worked down the hall from a pair of amazons that begin before the food bowls are swapped out, and don’t end until all the containers are closed up and the doors are shut. A non-stop scream that is reciprocated and answered between the two of them for sometimes over an hour. This does a number on one’s nerves, and i’m only there for a couple of hours a couple of times a week. I could not imagine waking up to that noise!

I did not include pictures of bites from all the varying beaks owned by these parrots. I have heard enough stories from the incredible volunteers I work with who have had to go back and face down the very beaks that ripped open their hands/wrists/arms requiring stitches.

It makes me want to shut my mouth when a Grey bites a bruised bump into my hand … which happened last week. I’m working through my anxiety in working with the ones you cannot ‘read’, which is 98% of them since i’m still fairly new to the sanctuary.

Those beaks can do serious damage. A Google search will prove that in .3 seconds. The bites are from pets. Trusted birds, in a lot of cases. Now imagine your toddler playing with the family bird, and the possibility of this happening. They do not have a way of telling you something is ‘off’, they only have their instinctual behavior.

Thank you to anyone who appreciated my point of view, and I hope it made a difference.