You have got to be kidding....

[Bandespresso]

You folks who run rescues have to be some sort of saint to hear the horrible stories from people and deal with them first hand. Seriously I commend you all immensely.

As some of you know, I was a "frontline" volunteer at a parrot sanctuary when I was in California. Thankfully, I dealt more with the birds than the people. Tonight I got a message from a family friend asking about the sanctuary I was at for her aunt who has a cockatoo with behaviour problems (a cockatoo with behaviour problems??? Unheard of right ). Okay no big deal...I give her the info for mine and a few others in socal and ask for some more information on the bird so I can pass it along the ranks. Then I get a message from the woman herself. Apparently, Penny has been in the family for 18 years and has never really been socialized with anyone but her person (the woman's mom). Because of this she didn't get attention whenever mom wasn't around and has probably been locked in a cage for the better part of 18 years. Of course she screams so they do the only logical thing to do and lock her in the garage.....so now she screams and bites and plucks and they don't know what to do.....

It took me 2 entire hours to formulate a polite, helpful response when all I really just wanted to say WHAT ARE YOU THINKING HAVE YOU EVEN LOOKED AT ANY SORT OF INFORMATION ABOUT ANYTHING BEFORE LOCKING HER IN A GARAGE AS A SOLUTION TO TOTALLY EASILY FIXABLE PROBLEMS?? And this isn't even on the top 15 worst rescue stories....I can't even imagine how hard it is to deal with idiots worse than that on a frequent basis.

Sorry definitely needed to vent this one out.

 

[Doublete]

People just suck for the most part... That's my conclusion..

 

[Bandespresso]

I really really can't stand people....that's probably why I love animals so much hahaha.

 

[Doublete]

Ha.
I am single with more animals than I care to count for a reason...

 

[Birdman666]

I saw the same stuff and worse every day when I volunteered...

I don't hate people, but you do find yourself saying "Sometimes I just hate people... " a lot.

I don't miss dealing with those people, or having to clean up the mess they made of their birds... and it is totally ridiculous what some of these people do to their birds.

 

[Hawk]

You folks who run rescues have to be some sort of saint to hear the horrible stories from people and deal with them first hand. Seriously I commend you all immensely.

As some of you know, I was a "frontline" volunteer at a parrot sanctuary when I was in California. Thankfully, I dealt more with the birds than the people. Tonight I got a message from a family friend asking about the sanctuary I was at for her aunt who has a cockatoo with behaviour problems (a cockatoo with behaviour problems??? Unheard of right ). Okay no big deal...I give her the info for mine and a few others in socal and ask for some more information on the bird so I can pass it along the ranks. Then I get a message from the woman herself. Apparently, Penny has been in the family for 18 years and has never really been socialized with anyone but her person (the woman's mom). Because of this she didn't get attention whenever mom wasn't around and has probably been locked in a cage for the better part of 18 years. Of course she screams so they do the only logical thing to do and lock her in the garage.....so now she screams and bites and plucks and they don't know what to do.....

It took me 2 entire hours to formulate a polite, helpful response when all I really just wanted to say WHAT ARE YOU THINKING HAVE YOU EVEN LOOKED AT ANY SORT OF INFORMATION ABOUT ANYTHING BEFORE LOCKING HER IN A GARAGE AS A SOLUTION TO TOTALLY EASILY FIXABLE PROBLEMS?? And this isn't even on the top 15 worst rescue stories....I can't even imagine how hard it is to deal with idiots worse than that on a frequent basis.

Sorry definitely needed to vent this one out.

Yeah I can relate......You just want to blow up at some of these people.
I have quite a few stories of rescues, of parrots and Birds of prey. Some stories would make you cringe.( My grey is sitting on my baseball hat on my head, just peeked over the front of my hat looking at me upside down) wants attention....always)

Anyway I was in south America helping with retro-fits of aircrafts, and was utterly shocked by some customs of the amazon ways....they capture and eat parrots as snacks. Call it Hillbilly ways.....it freaked me out.

 

[Hawk]

People just suck for the most part... That's my conclusion..

Naaaaaaa, just the drug company's of America (I.E. Johnson & Johnson,,,and the hoard of others) keep most people screwed up....
Not many sensible people left in the world.

 

[thekarens]

People just suck for the most part... That's my conclusion..

Naaaaaaa, just the drug company's of America (I.E. Johnson & Johnson,,,and the hoard of others) keep most people screwed up....
Not many sensible people left in the world.

Drug companies have nothing to do with this subject.

 

[Doublete]

People just suck for the most part... That's my conclusion..

Naaaaaaa, just the drug company's of America (I.E. Johnson & Johnson,,,and the hoard of others) keep most people screwed up....
Not many sensible people left in the world.

Mos definitely inaccurate. Human nature and what nature imposes on itself is what creates people that suck.

 

[Bandespresso]

Some people are wonderful (like you all) and get stuck with all the crappy people's messes. It's the worst!

I have soooo many cringe-worthy stories from working there and now a wildlife rescue that are infinitely worse than this one! But I have never had to deal with the terrible person themselves...that just is the worst part.

 

[Scott]

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian/issues97/jun97/kennedy_jpg.html"If you want a friend in Washington," former U.S. President Harry Truman once said, "get a dog."

Fair enough! Perhaps we can extrapolate that sentiment to birds in our little corner of the universe! The continuum of human character ranges from the sublimely wonderful to abject evil. Most folks inhabit the narrow mid-range, though IMHO those who abuse or benignly neglect animals occupy the danger zone. I believe cohabiting with parrots to be potentially the realm of deep ignorance albeit with good intent. No doubt parrot rescues view owners through the "vent" of human existence.

 

[Hawk]

People just suck for the most part... That's my conclusion..

Naaaaaaa, just the drug company's of America (I.E. Johnson & Johnson,,,and the hoard of others) keep most people screwed up....
Not many sensible people left in the world.

Mos definitely inaccurate. Human nature and what nature imposes on itself is what creates people that suck.

Ha ha ha....Well if you say so.....a 4 billion dollar industry can't be wrong right? Got an owieeee..take this, have a head ache take that...yep if you say so.

 

[thekarens]

Naaaaaaa, just the drug company's of America (I.E. Johnson & Johnson,,,and the hoard of others) keep most people screwed up....
Not many sensible people left in the world.

Mos definitely inaccurate. Human nature and what nature imposes on itself is what creates people that suck.

Ha ha ha....Well if you say so.....a 4 billion dollar industry can't be wrong right? Got an owieeee..take this, have a head ache take that...yep if you say so.

Spoken like a person who's never had a serious illness and actually needed medication. Try that one on an asthmatic or diabetic or a zillion other illnesses.

 

[gracebowen]

Hawk...Karen....you both have valid points and to a degree you are both right. Medicine is over perscribed in this country. Yet not available to those who need it. It all depends on the type of medicine.

My one month supply of muscle relaxers I got in Oct still has a weeks worth left. My doctor said I cant have anymore even though I have proved I dont abuse them. My inhaler yeah I use that more frequently.

A few years ago I sprained my ankle so bad I could barely work. Severe pai n. Couldn't get even 3 days of strong pain reliever.

 

[Dinosrawr]

It's genuinely sad how people treat animals. I'll never understand the ability to look at an animal and say, "I don't want to deal with you, so you can just disappear from my sight".

At our local rescue we have two macaws that they're concerned about because of naive neglect. Not knowing how to care for something can be just as dangerous and cruel as choosing to abuse an animal. It may be accidental, and to a degree is more forgivable, but I don't understand how individuals can choose to NOT know in this day and age. Not knowing is a choice, and claiming naivety can be akin to shirking responsibility in my books.

As for the off topic portion... my boyfriend NEEDS medication. Last thing I want is for him to disappear from this earth because people think poorly of prescribed medicine .

 

[Birdman666]

At our local rescue we have two macaws that they're concerned about because of naive neglect. Not knowing how to care for something can be just as dangerous and cruel as choosing to abuse an animal. It may be accidental, and to a degree is more forgivable, but I don't understand how individuals can choose to NOT know in this day and age. Not knowing is a choice, and claiming naivety can be akin to shirking responsibility in my books.

Well, they don't so much claim naivety as they are simply just that stupid... they dive in head first, never bother to find out - and then feel bad about it later...

And having been on some of these calls, yeah, abusers piss you off... BUT THE ABSOLUTE WORST OFFENDERS ARE THE HOARDERS... and they always are deluded enough to think they are doing a good thing by taking in more animals than they can possibly care for...

In their minds they are "rescuers." These are the people you most often need to rescue them from. And they are often in such deep denial that they FIGHT to keep from getting their animals taken away from them.

With a hoarder you get as many as 100 animals at once, usually all malnourished, diseased, kept in filth, or otherwise on the brink of death.

Many are elderly people with various mental illnesses...

AS FOR THE MEDICATION DEBATE: AFTER READING THAT I NEED MEDICATION... PREFERABLY THE RED VARIETY, IN LIQUID FORM...

 

[Bandespresso]

It's genuinely sad how people treat animals. I'll never understand the ability to look at an animal and say, "I don't want to deal with you, so you can just disappear from my sight".

At our local rescue we have two macaws that they're concerned about because of naive neglect. Not knowing how to care for something can be just as dangerous and cruel as choosing to abuse an animal. It may be accidental, and to a degree is more forgivable, but I don't understand how individuals can choose to NOT know in this day and age. Not knowing is a choice, and claiming naivety can be akin to shirking responsibility in my books.

As for the off topic portion... my boyfriend NEEDS medication. Last thing I want is for him to disappear from this earth because people think poorly of prescribed medicine .

With how easy it is to access information these days, I find it reeeeeeaaaaally hard to forgive people for not being knowledgeable. I just can't imagine bringing any life form into my house without knowing, at the bare minimum, the best way to care for it and what to do when things go wrong. It just doesn't make sense to me that people can give up on something when the solutions are so easily accessible. Of course it is better than someone being intentionally abusive.

On the other topic: why is this even a thing ? Also I know of a whole lot of people that are alive today because of the medicine industry. They are in debt up to their eyeballs but they are alive.

 

[Terry57]

I'm not sure how medication ended up in this thread, but I am bringing it back to the original topic.
My friend who owns a rescue took in a little White Eared Conure back in February who is 2 years old. He was feed apple seeds every day along with his other seeds because obviously the original owner did no research at all before taking the life of this little guy into their hands. Instead of a simple Google search, they took time to de-seed apples to give him.
He came into the rescue filthy dirty and smelled like a corpse.
His feathers are in much better shape now and he can actually perch again, but unfortunately he was surrendered too late. His kidneys are shot, and he is living on borrowed time. They are doing everything they can to prolong his life and make it a quality life, but sadly it is only going to end one way.
He breaks my heart, and I have massive respect for the folks who rescue and put themselves through this pain everyday.

 

[Scott]

I've not had contact with parrot sanctuaries, but the folks who operate and volunteer at them must have a similar level of dedication and constitution with folks working at human hospices. The difference, of course, is that the sanctuary has a potentially happy endgame - notwithstanding the saga of the White Eared Conure mentioned by Terry.

 

[Birdman666]

Well, speaking only for myself...

I was going through a messy ugly divorce, and I was broke, so I couldn't afford to do much...

Volunteering at the parrot rescue gave me a positive and constructive outlet for all that negativity going on in my life at the time...

It was as much a refuge for me as it was for them.

So, it wasn't selflessness. Working with those birds brought joy to my life... at a time when there was precious little of it left.

Even with all the ugliness associated with it. For me, it was mostly joy.

And to see a sad sack parrot turn around and become a normal, happy go lucky bird?! And find his/her person?! And go on to have a happy life?!
It has a way of restoring hope. One A$$hole did this to that bird, but there is still good people in the world, and they bounce back, and they love, and are loved. AND YOU GET TO SEE THAT HAPPEN EVERY DAY...

There wasn't a single day that I was in there where I didn't absolutely fall in love with at least a dozen birds.

And that's why I did it.

But sometimes it has a way of taking over your life. Becoming too much. There is a lot of petty politics involved. Money and time commitment issues. Screaming, biting out of control unhappy birds... and more coming every day. And the anger that comes from seeing "inhumanity"... "WHAT?! IT'S JUST A BIRD! DON'T GET YOUR PANTY'S IN A BUNCH..." ("How about I put my foot up you a--- instead!")

With me, I reached a point where I became very angry at the abuse. And it was just time to walk away... I did my part. Now I can't do this anymore at this level...

And on some levels, a lot of the neglect is caused by people who simply don't know how to train their birds.

So some of the stuff I've done on the internet on forums like this, actually mayreach more people, and improve the situation BEFORE it ever digresses to the GET THIS THING OUT OF MY HOUSE level.

So, I'm still doing my part... passing on what I've learned over the years.