An image I wish I'd never seen.

Hey Parrot People,

As I currently have a rescued Patagonian Conure as part of my flock Im always trying to find out more info about them.

Today I came across the image Im posting here in an article about the wild capture of birds.To start with I couldn't work out what I was looking at until I zoomed in and then my jaw dropped and I shed a few tears.

***the image shows the cruelty some humans direct towards anything that can make them a few dollars but should be ok for most to view



The rub of it is of course is that without birds being taken from the wild we would not have them in our homes to pamper,hopefully.

Here's Charlie the luckier than alot of his kin Patagonian

Best to get birds from breeders. Avian pet "trade" contributes to habitat loss, ecological disruption, and, of course, lots of dead birds who don't survive the trip up north.

Of course, if you didn't know (and for you, contextually, he's a 'rescue'), you aren't as culpable, but no one with a shred of moral decency should ever knowingly seek to purchase a wild-caught parrot. Wild parrots belong in the wild.

But the conundrum is, whether you buy one or not, a wild-caught parrot that survived a traumatic experience is now HERE, what would happen to it if it wasn't sold? The cruel ethics demand you that kill the demand, and leave it un-purchased. Doing anything else just feeds the vicious cycle.

Very eye-opening, thank you for sharing.

I've seen worse.

I saw a load of smuggled CAGS packed like that in a shipping container. Almost 700 birds, and ALL OF THEM died. They opened the container, and there was nothing but dead birds stacked like wood... Don't go looking for it. You won't like what you find.

Another recent smuggling operation had baby toos stuffed (alive) into plastic bottles. God only knows how they managed that one, but it looked horrible enough. That was posted somewhere on this site.

Many of our birds ancestors were trapped, but when it was legal to import, things were done a little more humanely by those who understood what they were doing, if for no other reason than getting paid meant delivering HEALTHY birds IN GOOD CONDITION.

Today's smugglers only care about finding ways around the system without getting caught. That's one of those "unintended consequences" things...

DON'T PATRONIZE SMUGGLERS!

That picture breaks my heart.
Years ago, I went to the Quarantine station in Miami back when they brought in wild caught birds. They had a section they called "Irregulars", and it was cages upon cages of birds missing wings, part of their beaks, 1 or both legs...all of which happened during capture. I will never forget that as long as I live. We bought a Toucan form that section who had lost half of her beak, and had it replaced with a metal prosthetic. He did just fine with that new beak, but I always pictured him in the wild before being mutilated.

Horrible, truly truly horrible. It is a shame that there is even still a market for wild caught birds and beyond appalling that in todays world situations like that picture can still happen.

My moms DYH was a wild caught back when it was legal. She was an adult bird when she was captured too. My mom happened to be buying food for her other amazon the day Lucy came in fresh out of quarantine, just been internally scoped (in the days before DNA gender testing, they had to stick a scope up their vent to see their sex organs) right before she was to be moved to "the back" breeding facility (which my mom says was similar to a puppy mill). She felt so bad for her, she bought her on the spot for a hefty sum (given they didn't want to sell their new healthy breeder), effectively saving her from the horrible life of being a battery breeder at a "bird farm". Sadly, millions of others like Lucy didn't end up going to loving homes or even end up in caring breeding operations. They ended up no doubt leading shortened, miserable and unenriched lives churning out clutch after clutch to give us the 2nd and 3rd generation hand fed/captive raised babies we have today. One has to wonder though what a bird who once lived free feels like being confined to a domestic home and how much they remember of their life before captivity. Of course, a hand raised baby has no concept of the wild or a life outside a domestic home, but I'm sure all the aging wild caught birds have some memory left of their freedom and the trauma they endured being captured and quarantined.

This image is a huge part of why I breed birds. One of the fastest ways to put these low lives out of business is to produce tamer, healthier, more affordable birds of the same species by breeding. If a customer can get a happier, healthier, more affordable bird from a breeder, they won't get a wild one from a place like this, and then there is no money to be had. Of course, unethical breeders are their own sort of parrot hell, but I won't go off on THAT right now....

What a horrific image, emblematic of the greed and callousness some justify to earn a buck. A stark and haunting reminder of the wild-caught pet trade plunder. This is sad beyond belief.