Filed under: parrots, Weekly Focus | Tags: african grey rescue, Cameroon, illegal parrot trade, smuggling, wild african grey parrot, wild caught parrots
Massive Confiscation of African Grey Parrots
Date: Nov 29 2009 | By: Simon at Limbe Wildlife Centre
Yesterday hundreds of parrots were rescued and transfered to the Limbe Wildlife Centre. They were confiscated at the Douala Airport, where they were kept prior to shipment out of the country. The illegal animal dealer has fled. The parrots were sitting in 10 crates, covered with lice, without food or water. By the time they arrived in the LWC 7 animals were dead and 4 more died soon after arrival.
Fortunately we had space in the quarantine, so we quickly prepared an enclosure for them. Our carpenter rushed to the market to get perches and find saw dust for on the floor. Some others went to buy corn, casava, peanuts and palmnuts in order to prepare the food. In no time the ape quarantine enclosure was changed into a flight cage for parrots. The parrots were off loaded and less then 2 hours after arrival they were confortably settling down in their new temporary home.
The horror of shipments like this is most visible when the strong birds have flown out of the transport cages, leaving the weak ones behind.
This makes me very angry with the people who do this. On the other hand, I want to focus on all those parrots whose lives are now saved. They will get all the care they need and most of them will be released back into the wild. From earlier experience I know that we will have months ahead of us with a lot of extra work, but that is okay. The Limbe Wildlife Centre has a bunch of great animal keepers, who will do everything to rehabilitate these parrots and let them fly in the forest again. We will keep you informed about the developments.
Filed under: parrots, Weekly Focus | Tags: dehydrated organic parrot food, healthy parrot diet, living food for parrots, organic grains and vegetable granola for parrots, organic mash for parrots, organic parrot crackers, organic parrot food, sprouted grain mix for parrots, sprouted grains, sprouted legumes
More than two months have passed by now, without me posting here and my ‘Weekly Focus’ became really stale…. but not my life!
I was very busy in opening my new organic parrot food business, Julia’s Country Pantry, which I named after Julia, my African Grey parrot.
As a long time parrot lover and mom for several parrots, I know how much time, energy and money goes into feeding our birds with a variety of healthy foods and most of the time, our efforts end up going into the garbage or to the backyard’s wild birds.
Parrots are picky eaters and many of them don’t even touch anything which we call healthy food, that can make parrot owners frustrated.
I talked with many parrot owners who, despite their good intentions, at some point in time gave up on the most basic and essential foods which their parrots require such as sprouted grains and legumes and a large variety of fresh vegetables offered daily, out of frustration.
My love for good food and healthy diet and also for cooking, baking or just creating new dishes, has brought my life from time to time into some kind of food business, which has happened once again and I had no other choice but to open Julia’s Country Pantry. Julia’s Country Pantry is a small, home based operation where we are offering the highest quality organic living food for parrots and with it, try to help parrot owners ease their frustrations over feeding. Our product also aims to save money as food portioning can be easily controlled effectively with our dehydrated products eliminating food going to waste.
Our dehydrated granola mix (shown in picture) contains ten different grains, some legumes and seeds which are already sprouted and they are mixed with a large variety of fresh vegetables, followed by dehydration at low temperatures to preserve the food in its living state and allow for the full benefit of enzymes, minerals , amino acids and vitamins to be consumed by the parrots.
These dehydrated products can be eaten as is, dry, or they can be rehydrated and offered in a soft form.
I can tell you from my own experience that since I have been using these dehydrated foods at least just for one feeding a day, usually for breakfast, made a huge difference in my life. It saves me money and time, without compromising my parrots’ healthy diet.
Not to mention the pleasure to see them every morning with their heads in their feeding bowls for a long time and look at those beaks!…covered with all those goodies!
If you are interested to see what I/we are making at Julia’s Country Pantry than just click on the link!
Until next time,
Marianna
Filed under: parrots, Weekly Focus | Tags: adoption, African Grey parrots, animal spirits, bird smuggling, CAG, Congo African Grey, living spirit, parrot crises, parrot rescue, parrots in captivity, signs, spirit contanct, wild african greys, wild parrots
Julia is my Congo African Grey parrot whose life began a long time ago somewhere in Africa. Born to a parrot mom and dad to be free in the wild, life was looking good for Julia, but around the time when she was ready to fly out from the nest and start a life on her own in the beautiful African wilderness, the unimaginable happened. She was grabbed from the nest, squeezed into a crate with hundreds of other parrots and waited to be shipped somewhere to the world, so she can be sold for a few dollars.
Through this horrible ordeal many of her friends died and it is a miracle that any of them could survive the horrors they have been through.
Being in the wrong place at the wrong time changed her life forever!
Finally one day the long and painful journey across the ocean ended and Julia arrived to the land of the free, but she was behind bars, as a prisoner of greed. She was deprived from her freedom forever. I can’t even imagine what went on in her mind!
As far as I could trace back her story, I knew one day she was bought by a man who wanted to breed African Grey parrots, but he did not know much about breeding and perhaps did not care enough about parrots, since he put her together with another female grey and waited for the baby parrots to be born, which of course never happened. Then the man died and his wife couldn’t stand these birds and didn’t know what to do with them, so she temporarily placed them down in the basement. It was dark there and the parrots didn’t even have a cage, they were living in a nesting box for who knows how many years until a rescue group finally saved them.
At that time neither Julia nor I had any idea that our paths will cross one day which will change both of our lives forever.
One beautiful August day I thought I would take my little dog, Rumci, the Papillon, to the park for a dog rescue event, where he can meet with other dogs and have a good time sniffing around and ‘reading’ the messages what those dogs left behind.
As we were walking around I stumbled into a woman who was holding a beautiful Macaw parrot. She was with a parrot rescue group passing out information and telling me all about the situation of captive parrots. That was the first time when I heard about what is going on in the world of pet parrots, the crisis which desperately needs our attention.
Since I always wanted to have a parrot, an African Grey one, for the same reasons which so many other people want this particular species, their intelligent and exceptional talking abilities, I thought this was a perfect opportunity to sign up to become a volunteer, possibly foster and eventually adopt a parrot through this rescue group.
To be honest, when I went home that day, I got a little scared and was thinking that I might just have acted a bit impulsively. I didn’t know anything about parrots and their care, and my life was well rounded and it might not be a good idea to disturb this wonderful comfort I was in. Then I said to myself they probably won’t call me anyway. But a couple of weeks later I got a phone call. It was a kind of emergency call from the director of this parrot rescue organization, who asked me if I could quarantine two African Grey parrots in my home.
African Greys?!
Well, it did not take long to make up my mind. I said yes and that was the day when my fate was sealed!
On a fall afternoon Julia and Jane arrived at my house. When I first looked into Julia’s eyes I knew we had an instant connection and I knew she will stay with me forever, but what happened after that may sound bizarre, but not for someone whose work involves metaphysics, such as I.
Julia and Jane
Both parrots were sick and for a few weeks we did not even know if they will make it or not. But the medication worked and after about a month the parrots got a clear health check and they were ready for adoption.
Julia stayed with me and Jane went to another foster home. But things did not go smooth. She was a wild caught parrot who has not been handled much and here I was with no experience handling parrots. When I put my hand there for her to step up, she always lunged at me and gave me warning bites. Eventually I became more and more uncomfortable with her, and of course she sensed my fear also and wasn’t comfortable either. But this was something which I knew I could work on with her.
My biggest concern was my little dog, who started shivering, hiding and urinating all over in the house when Julia whistled. Her whistle was an unusually high pitched sound.
I tried everything to help my dog, but nothing worked, so I had no other choice, but to give up Julia. But I couldn’t forget her, she was in my thoughts all the time.
Then a few months passed by and one day I noticed a lump on my dog’s behind. I got scared, he was everything to me, I rushed with him to our veterinary, who after the examination, told me that he needs an operation to remove this growth. The next day he underwent surgery, but then things did not look good, he was experiencing renal failure. I took him home and as a reiki healer desperately tried to help him; I wanted him to recover so badly. But when a couple of days later wasn’t any sign for recovery, I called my vet to ask him what else we can do to help save his life. I took him back to the clinic and they put him on I.V., hoping for the best that his kidney will start working again.
When I left him in the hospital and went home alone, my heart was broken; I knew deep down that he doesn’t have much time left.
That afternoon I decided that I’m going to bring him home, since there is nothing more my doctor can do for him. As me and my son were driving to the veterinary hospital we had to stop at a red light. While we were waiting for green, a car passed by us and in it an African Grey parrot was sitting on the driver’s shoulder. We looked at each other in disbelief, can this be true or are our minds playing tricks on us. The African Grey was there, it was real, we both saw it. That moment I knew that this was a sign, a message from my little dog, Rumci who was dying. I looked at the clock, which showed 5:30 PM. When we arrived at veterinary clinic, I could see on everybody’s face that something was terribly wrong. My dog passed away.
I asked my veterinary if he remembered the time when Rumci died, he said it was around 5:30 PM. The message from his passing spirit was clear then, I have to get Julia back. But his untimely death broke my heart and for a while I just wanted to be alone with his memory.
A couple of months later that parrot rescue organization had an adoption fair and I went. Julia was there sitting on a perch and when our eyes met we both knew that we were meant to be together. I went to her and put my hand there for her and she stepped on without any hesitation.
I took her home that evening, and since then, 6 years, Julia and I are inseparable. For a while she was barking as my little dog did, but then the barks slowly disappeared and what remained is her trade mark high pitched whistle…and one day she said a word!
I was outside with her, where at first she was curious and enjoyed looking around, but eventually I noticed she became more and more uncomfortable, to the point where she finally looked at me and said a word! -‘home’. I wanted to be sure that I’m not imagining so I asked her – you want to go home Julia and she said again ‘home’. We went inside and she shook her tail feathers and smiled.
Julia is my beautiful, intelligent and very sweet African Grey parrot, whose vocabulary still contains no more than this one word.
She calls our house in the middle of America a ‘home’ and that still brings tears to my eyes.
Until next time,
Marianna
Filed under: parrots, Weekly Focus | Tags: baby parrots, breeding parrots, CBS parrot trend, parrot adoption, parrot crisis, parrot mills, parrot rescue, parrot sanctuary, parrots, pet parrot, Sunday Morning
Yesterday morning while I was watching one of my favorite programs on TV, Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood, to my surprise finally I saw a honest break through report about the massive crisis which we have in the parrot world today.
Bye Bye Birdie – CBS (to watch the video click on the image)
What are we doing? Breeding parrots and then euthanizing them!
How can we expect any change if people keep breeding parrots?
Don’t we have enough parrots already?
What if people who love parrots, for the sake of love, just simply stopped breeding them?
What if people who don’t love parrots, but are breeding them for profits would have their operations (which are called ‘parrot mills’) shut down?
…..that would make a difference, wouldn’t it?!
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein
Filed under: parrots, Weekly Focus | Tags: adoption, fundraising, macaw parrots, parrot rescue, parrot sanctuary
This weekend we are having fundraising events throughout the greater Cleveland area.
Parrot Hope Sanctuary is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of parrots, the plight of which is often overlooked in animal rescue.
The sanctuary
All donations to Parrot Hope Sanctuary is gratefully received and are tax deductible.
Volunteers of PHS at Camp Cheerful
(Ed, Tammi and me)
Toby and me at Camp Cheerful
Filed under: parrots, Weekly Focus | Tags: adoption, animal abuse, caught in the wild, parrot breeding, parrot mills, parrot rescue, parrots, pet industry, sanctuary
If you think that you have nothing to do with this post, then think about what Gandhi has said -
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - this is just as true for people as for a nation.
When it comes to animals we are on the lowest level of morality and this of course have a reflection on many areas of our life, even if we don’t realize right away.
To be able to connect the dots in life it requires patience, perseverance, honest curiosity and thorough investigation and that is lacking in our society today.
Animals around us are the silent sufferers of our unlimited greed and limitless gobbling of everything we can put our hands on.
Animals can feel pain just as we can, they have spirit just as we have and their spirit ‘remembers’ just as ours do. We are very intimately connected to nature and its law applies to all of us on every level of our existence. None of us can escape the karmic path of ‘cause and effect’.
Our actions have consequences.
We are talking about spiritual enlightenment, holistic living and the awakening of consciousness, but no meditations, no positive thinking, no energy works of any sort, feng shui or any other remedies will work until we clean up the mess around us and that does not require any ‘sophisticated techniques’ and ‘secret knowledge’ just a genuine heart, the will for a better future for all , followed up by action.
The life force, or as the Chinese call it, the qi around us is toxic by the suffering and killing of humans and animals alike and until we stop, we will not be able to elevate our selves and the world to a higher level of spirituality and establish permanent harmony on Earth.
For me, it is very hard to accept that anyone with even just an ounce of moral consciousness, knowing what is going on with the animals around us -and who doesn’t know that?- can simply close their eyes and act as nothing is happening.
Pet and meat ‘industry’! The name tells it all, doesn’t it!
There are volumes to write about here, but today I just want to focus on the parrots.
Look at these birds!
Would you put an eagle in a cage in your living room? Of course not! So what is the difference between the eagles and parrots? Both are birds and were born to be in the wild flying around in the sky, but the colorful talker and animated parrots’ luck ran out when man realized – wow! I can make a few bucks on this one…..and while the eagles are still free to rule the sky, the parrots ended up like this:
Tammi Kraynak, director of PHS
The photos are taken at the Parrot Hope Sanctuary, which is one of the most reputable sanctuaries in the Midwestern USA.
Parrots whose ‘Heaven Luck’ ran out and fell into the trap of human greed:
How can we allow this to happen?
In the United State the Conservation Act (1992) prohibits the importing of birds, but unfortunately this did not stop the smuggling of parrots into the US, however it also greatly induced the breeding of many parrot species.
I’m sure many of you heard about puppy mills, but most likely not many of you know that there are parrot mills also, which are regularly ‘producing’ thousand of birds for the pet market, mostly for the chain stores, like PETCO, PetSmart, PetLand, just to mention a few.
Parrots that are born behind bars:
These parrots’ fates are already sealed at birth, their freedom is lost forever. Being born behind bars, almost always ensures a miserable beginning which most likely will continue throughout their life until they die. Most of these parrots have been deprived not only from freedom, but from living a healthy, happy and dignified life. Many of them are abused, neglected and when they are not needed anymore, euthanized.
The few lucky ones end up with a good owner, but their good luck can run out quickly when their owner’s life situation changes, and in the new life style the parrot has no room anymore, or when the owner dies. This is happening all too often! Parrots live a long life, for example, a macaw parrot can live to the ripe old age of 85 even in an abusive situation!
I can’t even find the words how to describe my feelings when I think of those old parrots and what they have been through their whole life and how long and miraculously they survived it all – how much their little spirit could take before giving up!
There is a crisis in the parrot world and we cannot overlook it!
The first and most important step to change is very simple: stop buying parrots or any other animals, adopt!
Adoption, if everybody would do it, it could be very effective in stopping the crises which is happening right now with parrots and other companion animals.
We already have enough animals in pounds, rescue facilities, foster homes and sanctuaries, not to mention the stray ones, who are waiting for a loving home to escape the horrible fate which humans imposed upon them, euthanization.
An adopted parrot, dog or cat can be loved and will love you just as, if not more, than a breeder ‘produced’ pet.
Breeding of animals is for profit, period, no matter how cleverly they try to moralize it!
“The bird of paradise alights only in the hand that does not grasp.”
- John Berry
