Airboats and Alligators? Bird neglect?

[GlitchTown]

Hi all! It's been a while since I've posted but I'd like to address something I saw last summer in Florida. My family took a trip to Florida to celebrate my Great Great Uncles 90th birthday. During our trip, my dad planned a tour of the everglades at a place called "Airboats and Alligators". A great tour, very relaxing and cool. Saw several species I never would have seen anywhere else, and even a nest with large eggs. Besides this, one thing kind of spoiled the trip. When we got there, I immediately noticed the lines of bird cages with birds inside. To say the least, it was very loud... but more importantly, the conditions they were in were rather scary.

First, there were two umbrella cockatoos in seperate cages next to each other. One was a young one. The other one next to it was an older one with completely plucked chest feathers. It gets worse. The smaller one had a total of two perches in the entire cage. The bigger one had ONE small perch. They both had dry, sore ridden feet... They both were completely stationary and looked very hot. Worst of all, THEY HAD NO WATER!!! This is outside in FLORIDA! IN THE SUMMER!!! The older one was so sweet. He/she came up to the side of the cage with it's overgrown nails and sore feet, and let us scritch its head. He closed his eyes, and just seemed like that was the first time he had been touched on the head like that.

They had more birds. But I don't remember the rest as fondly as the 2's, because after I saw the cockatoos I was far too angry and concerned. Other than the cockatoos, they had two African grays, both plucked, several parakeets and cockatiels in the same cage, a green cheek conure, and a blue and gold Macaw that paced back and forth insanely in his cage, sqwaking. I can tell they recently got this one, because he still had life... He paced around the cage longing for something, anything, to give him attention, to entertain him. He had no toys and two perches. None of the birds had toys besides maybe some destroyed old toys at the bottom of cages. The best condition birds were the parakeets and cockatiels, because they actually had more than two perches. But no bird had a full dish of water. They either had dirty, dried up dishes, or extremely low water. Very very concerning.

So I want to know, has anyone else been there? I don't want to assume, since these could be rescue birds taken in by them, but I highly, highly doubt it given the fact that they were in extremely dirty cages and had no water. I'm not sure how many are left there, if any, but I just wanted to address this issue because I very much regret not talking to the owners about this issue or calling a humane society. I really think that if this is still going on, actions have to be taken. It's disgusting.

Opinions?

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[eagle18]

The cages don't look too bad and I am not seeing sore feet. The water situation is alarming. Please report them.

 

[Tami2]

It's difficult to see from your images. But, I agree w/ Eagle18. If you feel it was clearly neglect boarding on abuse you should indeed report them.

 

[Scott]

Your description is very disturbing, and their web site doesn't suggest they have exotic birds on display or as rescue. Assume it is this: Airboats and Alligators

It is not too late to report your impressions! Perhaps you can contact local animal humane societies; closest largish cities seem to be Ft. Myers and Naples.

 

[wrench13]

Not uncommon at tourist attractions, especially , sorry to say, in the South, typically at the smaller venues. Last year the band played in Ty bee Island out side Savannah and went to a alligator themed restaurant, where they had 2 dozen different parrots in almost exact same conditions. And that was only the most recent. The alligators? Well fed, spacious containment areas. The parrots, well not so much. You won't see this at Kings Domin, or Disney, at Gator World, very likely. I always mention conditions to the management, but one voice against the $$$, is not so loud.

 

[Tami2]

I found this if it helps...

 

[GlitchTown]

The cages don't look too bad and I am not seeing sore feet. The water situation is alarming. Please report them.

I wish I had taken full cage shots, but I didn't know quite as much back then... I did know they weren't in good condition, though.

I do remember the cockatoos feet being bumpy and extremely cracked and flaky looking, though I'm not sure what else. As far as cage sizes go, they were actually large enough, but the real issue was the lack of actual content in the cage. Some cages looked older than others (the greys were play tops without the attachments, EXTREMELY dusty and rusty).

It's good to note that they had other animals as well, being snakes, turtles, and small alligators. As stated from someone else's experience, these ones seemed well taken care of, comparatively.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[eagle18]

Some people only see dollar signs when it comes to animals, like that moron who has a tiger at his gas station. The poor thing just paces back and forth in a dog cage. Their stupidity would be funny if it wasn't so damn tragic.