PBS documentary

[josiesmom]

We watched the pbs documentary tonight and feel horrible for what we are doing with Josie. Truth be told, we took her in not knowing enough about birds. I wouldn't change it because I don't know where she would be if we didn't keep her, and she certainly can't live in the wild now. Are we being selfish by keeping her in our home instead of with her natural flock? I never saw things from this perspective before. :-(

[Mare]

I believe this is playing here, tomorrow night. I definitely plan on watching it. You shouldn't feel bad for giving a bird a good home, Anita. There are so many people we could blame, before ourselves, as to why these birds are here in the first place. There are sooo many unwanted birds that need a good home. Feel good knowing you are providing the best you can for Josie. There really is no way that most of us could release our birds back into their natural habitat. I know I would, if I could.


Oh, wow! I just checked my TiVo recordings and YES, this program did play tonight! I'm glad I recorded it or I would have missed it! I'll watch it tonight!

[ShellyBorg]

The show only focused on the birds with issues, not really talking about the happy well agusted ones. :(

[coltfire]

can any one put up a link to the show as i dont get it out here in oz,but if there is a link i would like to watch it.

[kendrafitz]

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Hope this works!

[spiritbird]

I forgot to watch it last night and it is on several times today thank goodness. I love all the PBS Nature shows.

[Mare]

Get ready to she'd a few tears, Dianne :(. Shelly, I think what the program was telling us is that the birds WITH issues are usually caused by humans.

[ShellyBorg]

I would have loved to see more stories on how people got birds with troubled back grounds and manage to turn it around. We need more people to adopt birds in this country. There are so many being warehoused in "shelters". If they really wanted to show case pet birds, show the ones who came out of shelters and are now living in loving homes. Show how rehomed birds can do wonderful and make amazing companions. Even the shelters they showed where dark and in basements! The one where the abandoned Cockatoo went was so dark looking. Broke my heart.

[spiritbird]

I thought the show showed the viewers some of the dark realities of having a wild bird as a pet. We know birds are not pets. The average public does not know. I am hoping this show deters people from getting the larger birds who seem to be the ones with more issues because they are put into the no-home cycle more than other birds. Having a bird in your home should be a course you take in college beginning with understanding how they live in the wild. If one does not understand the complex needs of parrots who are caged then all is lost. That bird is doomed. That is what this show tried to communicate (my opinion).

[coltfire]

unfortunately it did not work

[Minamommy]

The show broke my heart. Having a cockatoo I can not imagine any reason why I would ever abandon her!! It's just like these idiots that abandon their animals when they evacuate for a flood. I'd like to tie they up to a back step and let the flood water come and get those people! I was so happy Lou found happiness and the amazon did. I know the answer is to not sell parrots, but then I wouldn't have the love of my life. I think people should HAVE to care for parrots for a year in a rescue first so they know what to expect. Maybe even a limit put on how many may be sold per year. Oh wait that's funny this country can't even control it's dog population.


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[Feathers First Aviary]

I was really excited to see this show, even posted a link to my timeline on facebook, we watched the show and I found it very informative but I also wish they would have showed the other side of the story. I really don't believe every captive bird is miserable and would be better off in the wild. I have plenty of birds here that absolutely love and crave human interaction. They get to fly every day, they get a good diet, lots of toys and when weather permits they get to go outside for fresh air and sunlight, all without having to constantly worry about starvation, illness or being eaten by a predatory animal. My biggest issue with it is now all I am seeing is breeder bashing everywhere. I will be the first to say, I HATE when people breed dogs and cats. It irks me to no end. There is a serious population problem and most breeders are doing nothing to better the breed, they are actually causing genetic problems in these dogs/cats. I'm sure that may offend some people here but that's just how I feel. When it comes to birds I feel a little differently. I personally will not breed certain birds(cockatoos, greys, etc) because I feel there are too many that do need homes and they are just not suitable for your average family. Now, you could say that there are a lot of budgies in rescues too, and yes, there are, but they are not hand fed, completely tamed budgies, they are usually parent raised, wild birds that are nearly impossible to handle. I'm not saying there has never been a tamed budgie in a rescue but I have never seen or heard of one. I am also working on trying to increase the longevity in english budgies, I'm taking a lot of heat from exhibition breeders right now for breeding english budgies back to americans, they don't like the idea of making them smaller. Well, I don't like the FACT that most english budgies are ridiculously inbred and have a lifespan of 5-8 years while americans can easily live to be 15+. I have been working to breed the english back to the americans and then breeding those crosses back together to slowly increase the size back up to see if we can't get a large bird plus a longer lifespan. It has been estimated that every english budgie in the US started from 100 birds, what does that tell you about their genetic background? Same thing with parrotlets, pacific parrotlets are being overbred by uninformed breeders that don't care about the genetic health of the birds. They are breeding for color only without having any concept of basic avian genetics, I talk to at least one person every day that says "I have two parrotlets how do i breed them?" They have no idea what the genotypes of these birds are, they just want babies. The problem with this is that breeding mutations to the same mutation(i.e blue to blue, yellow to yellow) creates problems with the offspring. It's at the point that finding clean green(wild type green, no splits) is nearly impossible because everyone is breeding for color now. If we don't start focusing on breeding the wild type green birds there will be none left in the gene pool and the birds will suffer because of it. Once they are gone, they are gone, it's not like we can just import more(and I'm thankful for that). I fear the same will be happening with green cheeks as well if people don't start breeding them properly. They are stacking mutations like there's no tomorrow with no clue what it's doing to these birds in the long run. But, with that being said, there are many of us out there that are aware of this and trying to fix it. I feel like there needs to be licensing for breeders, aviary inspections, etc. We do NEED breeders if we want to continue keeping companion parrots but we do not need all of these breeders that only care about profit or just plain have no clue what they are doing. I will also say that I am a big advocate for rescue. I feel like if you have enough experience to rescue a bird you should. If you want a baby that is friendly and sweet and has an awesome background, that's fine too. Most of the people that come to me are first time bird owners or have only a little experience, I don't know that most of them could handle a bird with a lot of baggage, they would rather learn as much as possible ahead of time and start fresh with a baby. That being said, I do not buy birds as pets. I do buy my breeders from other breeders but that's because I need to know their background, I need to know age, lineage, etc. If I am adopting a bird to be a pet it is going to be one that NEEDS a good home and that does have some issues to be worked through but that's because I know enough about bird behavior to help them, I'll save the sweet babies for someone that maybe doesn't have as much experience as I do. I also make it very clear to everyone that gets a bird from us that if for any reason they cannot keep them I will always take the bird back, no questions asked. The last thing I want is to have any of my birds end up in the wrong hands or in a rescue. So far, even with the hundreds of birds I've raised, every single person still has their bird, and yes, I do keep in touch with practically everyone, whether it be via phone, email or facebook.

I'm sorry for the long rant I was just a bit upset after watching that show that almost everyone from every group on facebook were just bashing bird breeders like we are the anti christ or something, yet these are the same people that ohh and ahh over the different mutations(not sure where they think mutations come from if it's not through selective captive breeding).

They also mainly focused on wild caught birds, importing birds into the US was banned 20 years ago, I know nest robbing still goes on in other countries but I'm not sure how that has anything to do with the birds that are here now. I think we all agree that wild birds should remain that way, there's really no argument there. but for someone that doesn't know that every bird that's been born in the past 20 years (in the US anyway) has been captive bred that show made it seem like they are still being imported. Our blue fronted amazon was wild caught and we wouldn't even know if it wasn't for his leg band, he is a very well adjusted, happy amazon. Also, they kept showing birds in tiny cages with no toys, of course they have issues!! The people with that amazon were driving me nuts, they said the bird was having issues and I was like, take him out of the darn cockatiel cage and give him something to do!!!! I would have issues too if you locked me in a closet with nothing but a bowl of seeds and water! *smh*

[spiritbird]

Amen Sara. I totally agree with your assessment of the show.

[Blancaej]

I too think the show was a bit one sided. But I do think it will help bring awareness to people considering birds, that they are a lot more work then they realize. Birds are very sensitive creatures and need to be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. My hubby and I teared up more then once. It is really sad to see how some of these birds are treated. :(