when my husband announced his desire to go to Princeton I informed him to prepare for a commute, because we will be living in Pennsylvania!
Just so you know, NJ is not a seize and destroy state. AHW is one of the shelters with additional licensing to have the 'illegals' for an extended period of time to find them homes in legal states. But NJ Fish and Wildlife do not kill Quakers, IRNs or the Patagonian Conures, trust me, we have quite a few Quakers and IRNs at our shelter and all but two came from the Fish and Wildlife or NJSPCA. They will seize the birds from RESIDENTS, but they turn them over to licensed / registered shelters such as AHW, Lonely Grey, etc. Even most of the agents don't really agree with the laws, Quakers have been in the area for a long time and there have been no effects on the environment, the biggest problem they present is the very large and heavy communal nests they build (some have weighed 200 lbs), but they build them on power / phone poles quite often. At times they cause issue with service, but the only time NJ Fish and Wildlife will take down a nest is if it interferes with service or the electric company is servicing that pole and needs to replace the pole or equipment. This summer they took down a large nest. The adults flew away (they were not trapped or destroyed) and the babies in the nest were delivered safely to AHW. We handraised the babies and all but two have been placed in homes outside of NJ and PA. Anyone in NY, CT or Mass interested in two adorable girls, the little sisters are awesome funny little things!
Oops forgot to add - to our knowledge there are no known IRN nests in NJ. We've never once had a 'wild' IRN turned over to the shelter.
Just wanted to add in some personal experience with NJ Fish and Wildlife, everyone I've ever dealt with have been wonderful caring people. We have one agent who stops by the shelter for coffee if she is in the area! She loves to come and visit the parrots. They really are not bad people, just doing a job and enforcing a really stupid law.
