Rescue found a parrot and promptly clipped?

[Eurycerus]

This sparked some serious emotions within me.

So someone who is part of the rescue found a parrot which is great! Literally within a day, or less they clipped the parrot's wings. When I read that I really felt hurt. They punished that parrot for something that is it's owner's fault. Only one other guy chimed in saying he didn't agree with clipping so quickly if at all with a found parrot. I eventually pointed out that I agreed there should be a grace period before doing such a drastic change and suggested a week. I was being non-inflammatory and decided that seemed like a nice compromise between the very pro-clip people and myself and what I feel is right for the parrot.

Oh and on a good note, the next day I believe, someone pointed to a lost ad and the parrot was reunited with his owner.

The woman spoke with me privately, which I appreciated, and I shared my view point and why I felt it was unjust. I, hopefully, wasn't rude. I'm not mad, I just felt it was inappropriate to do, particularly so quickly. Thoughts?

[Andromeda]

Yeah, there should be some kind of grace period before the bird gets clipped although what exactly is the physical situation with the rescue itself? As much as I advocate keeping birds flighted sometimes if you have a rescue with tens or hundreds of birds kept in really close quarters keeping them flighted is impractical or impossible just because you don't have the man-power to supervise all those birds at once, birds are coming and going all the time and don't have the chance to get used to the other birds and they might fight, etc.

It's kind of funny that you should post this because I just had something very similar happen.

I know a woman who I'll call "Jane" who used to run a parrot rescue (actually the rescue where I got my Poi) who no longer runs the rescue but now works at a store called The Bird Store. (Incidentally they don't sell birds but just sell all the accessories). Someone found a lost parakeet flying free outside but it was tame so they brought it to The Bird Store. "Jane" (or someone else at The Bird Store, not 100% clear on this) clipped the bird and took it home. It made me so sad that the first thing that happened to that parakeet after it was rescued from the wild was that it got clipped because it's not the bird's fault that it flew away! The parakeet (whose name is Blue) was reunited with its owners after about 3 weeks so it's a story with a happy ending but I feel bad that the bird was clipped as part of the process.

Let me say for the record that Jane loves birds probably more than anyone I have ever met and when she used to run the rescue she took in as many birds as she could and some of them were from terribly abusive situations, some had physical injuries, etc. She worked hard to rescue as many birds as she could and take care of them while she tried to find them new homes. She has done more good for birds than anyone I know personally although she is no longer able to run the rescue due to a change in circumstances as she no longer lives in a home but in a tiny apartment where she can't run a rescue anymore. With that in mind it just makes me extra sad that she (or at least one of her co-workers) clipped the lost parakeet before she took it home.

She has two cockatoos as pets and I don't know if they are clipped or not but I'm actually planning on getting together with her soon because she wants to learn about clicker training birds and if I see her cockatoos are clipped I'm going to very tactfully broach the subject of keeping them flighted. I don't know if she's a proponent of clipping one way or the other but she cares so much about birds and always wants to learn new things about them that I don't think it would be hard to change her mind if she was.

[Eurycerus]

The rescue is all volunteer run (except maybe the top few people). All parrots are fostered by volunteers and adopted out by volunteers doing bird education classes, phone calls, and home visits. There is no central warehouse or even office.

It was just so weird that a parrot that was described as tame and sweet was clipped so immediately. It's not like the parrot was terrorizing them, which though I feel bad, is justification for a clip. I do not want a parrot I don't know lunging at my face. To me that's not a priority and definitely not my first thought.

The woman who did it seems like a very nice, parrot loving person from everything I've read. We've corresponded before so hopefully she doesn't think I'm trying to attack her. I tried really hard to make my lengthy email friendly but I had a lot to say.

[pennyandrocky]

with a rescue unfortunately i agree with marie they have too many birds to allow full flight. but they should have waited to see if the owner would claim the bird before rushing to clip. i did ask the man who was fostering mya not to clip and he agreed. i would like to someday foster fully flighted birds for the rescue. i'm not sure yet if they'll allow that but if there are people willing to adopt unclipped birds they will be ok with that.

[Michael]

I wish people would learn that parrots get lost because of poor precautions made by the owner and not because they aren't clipped.

[marie83]

I wish people would learn that parrots get lost because of poor precautions made by the owner and not because they aren't clipped.

Me too.

The enjoyment my birds get, particuarly Ollie who is a keen flier when he is feeling well, is absolutely nothing I could replicate with all the toys, tricks and attention in the world.
He will fly for the sheer hell of it, he loves his recall training, when he flys unless he is training he doesn't just go from A-B he will circle the room and loop round, change direction on a hairpin and fly at pretty steep angles (floor to playstand for example) both up and down.

If I was ever stupid enough to let him get out (or harlie despite being a poor flier) and was lucky enough to get him back I would feel like killing the person who clipped him.
Rescues generally dont have huge amounts of birds in one room/aviary. most run in the way Eurycerus describes (at least in this country)