What's up, everyone. I'm upset.
|Lightning is my life.
|My entire life was ruined by Square Enix.
|I like Kpop but in a healthy way.
|Very Ace/Aro.
|I am your average every day enigma.
|š
(angry video game nerd voice) two genders? that’s it? and you just get given one at random, you don’t even get to decide which one you want? what a shitload of fuck
Donāt hate me but I really believe the world would be a better place if pigeons were the ubiquitous avian pet instead of parrots š
Soapbox time, sorry to interrupt but itās something I feel strongly about.
I LOVE birds. Adore them. Obsessed with them. I see a vulture on the side of the road and I squeal because theyāre so COOL. I plant honeysuckle outside my window to watch hummingbirds. I spend hours looking at bird photos for this blog. In some circles my name is āAuntie Birdieā and in others āBird Lady.ā
And I am strongly against parrots as pets⦠even though I own one.
She is a rescue, whose previous owners thought it would be fun and cute. When she was a baby, they adored her. Then she started to grow up, and so did her demands. They couldnāt keep up with having jobs and coming home to a screaming toddler every day, knowing that this was the next 40+ years.
So now I own her, but honestly she owns me. I lament every day that she wasnāt born in the wild with a flock. I am twisted into a pretzel trying to keep her engaged and happy, and itās a full-time job, and itās never enough. I love her with every beat of my heart, but I would still rather see her living in the wild where she belongs.
There are some days when sheās using her āoh no Iām lost my flock isnāt hereā scream intended to travel through the rainforest⦠Inside my home⦠When Iām just a room away⦠I just think about the average person who wants a parrot, and I wish they knew.
They arenāt pets. They arenāt cute little cuddle things that talk. They arenāt the funny, silly things on YouTube.
They are wild animals that are meant to be flying free and foraging in trees and making nests and screaming as loud as they want as much as they want.
I wholly recognize that there are lots of people like me who dedicate much of their life, time, energy, and money to keeping their parrot happy.
But I also know, for a fact, how many parrots suffer. How many rip out their feathers from anxiety and depression and from being unable to cope with the stress of captivity; instead of a flock and an entire forest or plains or mountain, they now depend on you, in your home.
How many parrots are snatched from the wild to be sold as pets. To be forced to live and breed in small cages so their young can be sold as pets.
How many breeders see them as high value items, a market good. There are breeding mills. There are parrots kept in a garage for the sole purpose of breeding. There are parrots who donāt get to fly, to play, to run around.
So if you really want a parrot, ask yourself this.
Are you ready to have a toddler for the rest of your life? Are you ready to be a parent whose child never grows up, never matures? Are you ready to have a pet that you canāt easily board when you go on vacation?
Are you ready to try to be a substitute for an entire flock, to be a substitute for the wonders of the natural world?
There are so many that are suffering. So many surrendered to rescues. Too many. Way, way too many.
Please think VERY CAREFULLY before buying a parrot, and then please still donāt do it.
Someone driving a car pulls up to a McDonalds drive-thru in Germany. The intercom podium reads “[handwritten script] Wilkommen bei [McDonalds “M”] [typed script] ich liebe es] (translation: Welcome to [McDonalds “M”] I’m loving it)
transcript of conversation:
Driver: Hallo
Employee: Hallo
Driver: Guten Sie English? (Is your English good?)
Employee: Yes
Driver: Stahbiell. Ich bekomm bitte einmal ein Doublepack menu. (Cool. I’ll have a [menu item], please.)
Employee, in heavy German accent: I don’t understand German.