Please help make parrots recognized ESAs. Some of us rely on their intelligence to help with physical pain.

[JenFinelli]

Hey there. I'm new here--I've lurked for years, but I've got a conure, a cockatiel, a lovebird, a medical degree, and a neurological disease where emotional distress causes me physical pain. I know your birds matter to you, and I know for many of you, you wouldn't want anything to separate you from your flock.

Airlines have recently started discriminating hard against bird owners versus mammal owners, and I'm begging you guys--please join me in helping people recognize birds aren't some cheap feathered toys for kids to cage and kill, but deeply intelligent creatures who need respect, protection, and the legal status to express their full potential as life-savers.

Thank you for helping me have less pain.

 

[SailBoat]

As a longtime owner of a specific species of large Parrots, i.e. Amazons, I can fully understand the emotional connection between Parrots and humans.

I had watched the same movement from the Airlines being very open to closing to to very specific and classified / recognized animals (dogs). To be fair, they made the change because of the abuse of the general public to a point of extensive complaints and more specifically, lawsuits from other passengers. To vastly simplify their position, they just shut it all down to a very specific class and certified group.

Yes, we as individuals can make our position known to our representatives and senators and I agree that we should do that. But, there needs to be a solid foundation from the Medical and Veterinary Sciences as the Doctors have to be willing write prescriptions for those services and Avian Vets need to be willing to provide the needed health documents. Add to that, the owner will need to be maintaining at a very minimum, a Yearly Well Parrot visit, something that is sadly rare with Parrot owners.

At this point, only a Certified Avian Vet can provide a Health Travel Certificate. And to pile-on a bit, CAV's are rare in most of North American and especially in the Northern regions. In my State, we have only 'one' and that individual is located in the greater Detroit area, which is a long way from near all of the State.