I just read "Of Parrots and People" - it begins with the usual fascinating stories of the incredible displays of intelligence of some parrots. I mean, astounding intelligence. And then veers into the train wreck of beautiful intelligent birds meet humans looking for entertainment and money. Some reviewers didn't like it, said she is arguing against keeping pet parrots when she has one herself, but I found it a very moving, very profound, very intensely disturbing book. Read the chapter of people selling parrots on the roadsides in Mexico, the stories of bird smuggling... We have a bird, and if we didn't I would be sorely tempted to get me a little pocket parrot, and I think it's wrong to keep them as pets, too. But they are here, they are homeless, what are we to do, turn our backs?
When Oliver died, we wept for days. Weeks. OK, we both still cry sometimes, and it's been almost a year. I thought I would like to do something in his memory, something to help parrots in need. I still want to do something. I donated some money to a couple of rescues, but that is just a drop in the gigantic bucket. Start of fund rescues? Education programs? Maybe invent a new kind of cage, an un-cage without bars, just a stand surrounded by some kind of "moat" that a clipped parrot can't escape from, some shape of low wall with a large round pipe or incurring edge on top they can't climb on, so they could be safe without being enclosed in bars. Would need a kind of protected semi-enclosed space the bird could go into when desired, and perches for viewing the world and climbing around. I know it would not be suitable for all birds, even a clipped bird can fly in a panic, but there must be something possible that better than the jail cells we have today...
