Hffn rescues 12 blue and gold macaws from deplorable condtions!

[amjokai]

Hi everyone,
I just wanted to share what we've been doing here lately.

Last week our HAWAIIAN FEATHERED FRIENDS NETWORK (CLUB) got a call that there was a lady trying to sell some macaws in terrible condition on craigslist. On Saturday we went out to check it out and ended up buying the macaws. unfortunately she didn't care that they needed to be rescued and we had to pay her for them.... She sold one to a man who didn't care that the bird needed to see a vet and they put the entire rusted out cage into his truck shaking it and laughing... he told me "Well it lived this long like this It can stay this way!" I had to walk away so that I didn't hit him with a piece of rebar that was on the ground.... There were two others which were "already sold" and she wouldn't let us take.... We were able to purchase 12 and spent the next two days getting things ready to move the birds and making sure they had eaten enough to be strong enough for the move....
Yesterday we had a team of 10 club members move the birds.... We managed to get them kenneled and in cars in an hour and a half.... Considering most of us had never done anything like this we think it was a very impressive job.... Some of these cage doors were so small that we could barely fit two hands in to grab the birds... The birds are settled in a temporary foster home and one saw a vet this morning about his beak.. I haven't heard any news about what the vet says about the beak.. The birds will be treated for some parasites tonight but we need help. They will be sent to Macaw Rescue and Sanctuary in Washington to be cared for by Bob Dawson, but we have exhausted our resources and they need to be seen by vets and treated before we can send them out... There are no sanctuaries that can keep them in Hawaii. Some of these birds are completely wild and have never left 24-28 inch cages their entire lives....

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We Were feeding them but couldn't get those rusted bowls out....

 

[GreatBlue320]

Thank you so much for sharing this story. I am moved to tears. It must bring all the members of your club so much joy to know you have given these beautiful birds a chance to have the happy, healthy lives they deserve.

 

[Allee]

Deepest gratitude to you and to each and every humanitarian that helped in this amazing rescue! This story really tugs at my heart. These poor birds deserve some good fortune, I'm glad you were able to change their lives for the better.

 

[miloslave]

I am so glad you guys were able to save these poor babies! Thank you for caring enough to make a difference!

 

[Doublete]

How does someone end up with that many birds?!?!
Poor creatures. So glad you Were able to get them out

 

[amjokai]

The story goes: (from my understanding) that he was a very wealthy man and bought a bonded pair and Bred them. Unfortunately, he did so very irresponsibly. From what it sounds like years ago the set up was very nice and then he got sick. A year ago he died and left them to a woman who had no animal knowledge at all.
In my mind I think that this is not only a year of neglect. These birds and cages have been here for years so we don't know what to believe.

I have more birds than he does but mine are all in clean cages with no rust. There are so many different versions to the story we don't know how they got in these conditions but now they are in a safe place until we can get them shipped to the sanctuary.

The one with the bad beak had full blood panels and is on antibiotics now. We are working on getting the others seem but the costs are adding up. We are working with Alaska airlines who is being very generous in helping us ship them. We are just trying to take everything one step at a time. There are videos of the rescue on the Hawaiian feathered friends Facebook page.

 

[Christinenc2000]

This came across my news feed. So glad you could help these poor birds. Your group did a amazing job at staying cool and even tempered .
Please keep us updated on this story.

 

[amjokai]

We will! I just pray that they will be okay! They need so much vet care.... It's so sad.

 

[labell]

OMG this is so heartbreaking! Thank you, thank you for saving the ones you could. I also want to add SHAME on that woman..that 1,200 is blood money imo and nothing good will come from it. Karma is a female dog...I hope it bites her!

 

[Birdman666]

In my mind I think that this is not only a year of neglect. These birds and cages have been here for years so we don't know what to believe.

Exactly, after it's discovered, welcome to the land of a million excuses, and the story continually changes over time...

Frankly, you really don't give a _____ at that point... you just want to get them out of there, and do what you can to save the ones you can. And you hope it's not too late...

I did a backyard breeding operation like this a few years back with 75 PAIRS of macaws... The house was lost to foreclosure and the owner just walked away leaving the birds in their cages with no food or water...

We saved 12 of them.

The rest died.

Nothing happened to the people who did it.

All you can say to that is some or the people in this world who suck...

Forcing the rest of us to deal with the mess they left behind.

Sadly, this is not a unique situation at all.

 

[Mariar]

Makes you want to put those bad people in rusty cages with no food or water then walk away and leave em...so they feel the pain and heartbreak of being unloved. Thanks for saving those birds..there's not enough to of us out there to do these things.

 

[Terry57]

Those pictures broke my heart. Thank goodness that your club rescued these beautiful, tortured birds. The way they were kept destroys my faith in humanity but wonderful people like you and your club restores it.

 

[Birdman666]

Those pictures broke my heart. Thank goodness that your club rescued these beautiful, tortured birds. The way they were kept destroys my faith in humanity but wonderful people like you and your club restores it.

Not all of HUMANITY... just CERTAIN HUMANS...

If you don't continuously remind yourself of that, you'll go insane dealing with this stuff. The vast majority of not just this stuff, but most criminal activity as well, are actually done by a very small minority of people...

ONE IDIOT can do a lot of damage.

ONE MISGUIDED/MENTALLY ILL person can do even worse, without even realizing that they ARE the problem.

The problem is identifying who "THEY" are.

Most people are basically good.

 

[amjokai]

Wow. Birdman! Only 12 survived out of 75? Were they just too far gone already? So sad!

 

[amjokai]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09Ot4pajF58&feature=youtu.be"]Amazing Macaw Parrot Rescue of 12 Blue and Golds in Hawaii - YouTube[/ame]

 

[SoCalWendy]

All I can say is heartbreaking... SMH

 

[BreakinNewz]

wow amazing that people can be so cruel, thanks to people like you to not let this go unnoticed! Props to you!

 

[Birdman666]

Wow. Birdman! Only 12 survived out of 75? Were they just too far gone already? So sad!

Not just 75 macaws. 75 PAIRS!!! This was a breeding operation. The birds were in outdoor cages, paired up. Macaws weren't selling in the downturned California economy. Then he lost the house to foreclosure, didn't have a place to put the birds, so he just walked away from it, leaving the birds in their cages, with what ever food and water was in there at the time he left... (Yeah! Exactly!)

Only 12 of 150 survived.

Most of them, unfortunately, were already dead birds in cages by the time we got permission to enter the property.

It's one of those sights (and smells) you just don't forget. (It was the SMELL that alerted people to the problem.)

They'd have had a better survival rate if the guy had just opened the cage doors and allowed them to try and fend for themselves. He didn't even do that...

NO TELLING HOW LONG THEY'D BEEN WITHOUT FOOD OR WATER... and that's just a horrible, slow and painful way to die.

I wanted to kill the ------- but, of course, he was long gone by the time we even found out about it. He was never caught.

And now I'm angry all over again...

 

[amjokai]

Wow! That I wouldn't have been able to handle.

 

[Birdman666]

That was almost a decade ago... and I still get angry when I think about it.

We saved 12... that wouldn't have been saved. Focus on that, and forget the rest. (End of story.)

Just like you saved the ones you could. You aren't responsible for them being in this condition, but you're doing your best to correct it. Be proud of that! The other 3 are outside of your control... you did what you could. Not your fault. Not something that should haunt anyone, except maybe the person responsible for that condition in the first place. You are not responsible for the condition they were in, and you can't save them all...

(And if there is a hell, hopefully this guy is in it, in a tight fitting nasty cage, with crappy food, and green slime water to drink.)

There were five or six things that happened right in a row, there at the end, that prompted me to walk away and not look back. This was one of them. The guy with the greenwing was another, which clearly showed me that I was losing my composure and perspective... "I shouldn't do this anymore... I need to get away from it." The worst one, is one of those things that doesn't need to be repeated or thought about ever again... That was the "I don't even want to know about this stuff anymore! I just can't do this... " moment for me.