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The love and enthusiasm we have for
our pets goes so deep. We want to save them, feed them,
care for them and we want them to depend on us, much
as if they were our own children.
For some of us, this runs very, very deep in our veins
and sometimes we have to stop and ask ourselves if we
are addicts or enthusiasts.
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I know this is a controversial
article, so I'll try to deliver it as easily as
I can. There are no attacks intended, only factual
information geared toward helping us to understand
ourselves and our environments.
Cases of animal abuse swarm the country. At any
given time you can go to the news and find something
about someone abusing animals. Many of these cases
are unfounded in the end, but many aren't. Cases
of "collection" of animals are common
more and more often in the larger cities. Birds
in the hundreds being found in people's basements,
stacked in teensy cages and in bad environments
without much sunlight are being found yearly.
It's the cases like this which prompt my questioning
as well as wondering what makes someone do something
like that.
Studies show that people who become collectors
are commonly lonely individuals who only want
the best for the animals. They want to save them
all, or to breed them to make money to take care
of the rest. Sadly, too often they collect so
many that they accidentally neglect them. This
is one of the saddest types of a disorder, because
the person's best intentions were geared toward
the animal and never toward neglect.
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bird
display
cages
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Sometimes it just becomes too much for them to handle
and so they are afraid to seek the aid of a rescue organization
or to give the animals away because they are afraid that
someone won't take good care of them.
In the U.S., there are serious cases
coming up left and right. I caution that if we are breeders,
we need to only keep what we can care for on our property
and if we are rescue oriented programs, that we rescue
only as many as we can properly care for. I know our
hearts run deep, but the lives and care of the birds
are more important. It's a hard line to draw for some.
There are questions we should always ask ourselves first,
before venturing onto a new bird as bird enthusiasts
if we have more than 2 birds.
1. How many birds am I comfortable in taking
care of every day, for the rest of my life?
2. How many birds can I provide food for, even
on a tight budget if something goes wrong?
3. How many birds am I able to provide medical
care for without monetary troubles which may effect
the rest of the birds?
4. How many birds can I love at one time without
someone else feeling neglected? This is a tough question.
We can love millions of birds...I know I certainly can,
but I can care for only 6 or so large birds at one time.
That is the fact I have to realize every time we are
begged to take in a new bird. We now have 3 and it's
comfortable.
Should we end up with 6, it will still be comfortable.
Should we take in 7, it will no longer be comfortable,
time wise, for me to spend an hour a day with each bird.
There are lines we must draw. I prod every one of us
to make our boundaries and to stick to them, because
the best of intentions can so easily end up being the
worst of a situation.
I applaud the rescue programs and I applaud the wonderful,
dedicated individuals who breed parrots to keep the
gene pools alive and to help to preserve the population
of parrots. I applaud every one of you who has the strength
to go back to a cage to try to love on a Moluccan Cockatoo
who keeps embedding his beak in you every time you want
to pet him because he was abused. I applaud all those
wonderful people who dedicate their lives to the birds
and their preservation, but I also caution each one
of us that we must draw the line somewhere.
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