Animal Neglect

[pollyparrot]

I'm not sure how to try and help some neglected parrots living in a public school but I have to try and wanted to ask here whether anyone has suggestions. While there are strict regulations governing the use of animals in experiments, I think that the welfare of animals kept as "pets" in schools is completely overlooked and no one is aware or checking up. I wish the humane organizations would take this on even though there are worse abuse cases that keep them busy. So the thing is there's a school with 18 parrots (including a grey, goffins, red-fronted macaw, other macaw species and amazons, etc.) and some cages of budgies. The grey and goffins are in tiny cages. Many had no perches in Sept. until I brought some in, much less toys. They are left along with light off every weekend and for up to 3 days during holidays, many with no extra food or water. Water cups are often putrid, perches with mold piled up. Their care is left to high-school students with no proper adult supervision. Most are never taken out of their cages. I've spent countless hours cleaning and socializing with them but have been nearly banned by the defensive head of the program who referred to them as "trash birds" and somehow thinks the miserable existence he has provided is an improvement. From my perspective it's just extended torture. It breaks my heart. Don't know quite what to do and I feel helpless. I can try some local animal welfare groups and maybe find a reporter?

[pennyandrocky]

unfortunatly there are no laws about parrots but i think it's changing. since it's a school i would try to make what they're doing public like a news story maybe you can shame them into changing what they are doing.good luck keep us up.

[marie83]

I don't think your laws are very strict over there so there wont be much you can do

But there are a few things you can do

Contact as many animal rescues as you can and see if they are willing to go over, look at their set up and offer advice to the owners.

See if any reporters who write animal articles for newspapers or magazines are interested to get some publicity. Failing that any other reporter, preferable both particually local papers.

Try speaking to the animals keepers yourself, but only do this is you can be very very diplomatic about at and definitely won't get stressed no matter how they respond to you.

Write them an annoymous letter outlining why the birds are suffereing and realistic things/cheap ways they can improve the situation for them. Quote and reference loads of facts like how much of the day they spend foraging, how social they are. Whatever is relevent to their situation. You could include pictures of good set ups vs bad ones for comparison.

If all else fails start a petition! lol


Best of luck helping these poor creatures.

[liz]

I am so sorry that the plight of these little beings has fallen on your shoulders alone. If I was in your area I would be there to help. All I can do is give you ideas.

Who is taking care of them now?
Who will take care of them in the summer?
Our TV news people have always come to the rescue when I found such injustis. Call 2 TV news and set up a time to meet at the school. Write down everything you know about them before you call.
Do you have a spare room so you can offer to take them in for the summer?
Is there a parrot rescue near by?

Count on the news teams to bring this out.

Bless you for trying. Rattle the cages at the school and I don't mean the birds.

[pollyparrot]

Thanks for the replies. I will continue to investigate the matter but I know there are no real laws to protect them from this sort of neglect. Also any reporter or other visitor could not show up unexpected, which means they'd clean up the place for the inspection. I wish I'd taken some pictures before I ended up bringing in a bunch of perches and some toys. I wish I'd taken pictures of the times the room was plaqued by roaches and mice.

The word is out in the school that the bird room may not be properly managed and that is fueling the rage of the head of the program. The day after he berated the woman who had been helping me after hours and left her in tears and resigned to not return to the bird room, he stopped me to attempt to explain that he doesn't want me to think he doesn't appreciate the toys, etc. that I have brought in, blah blah blah. But that he feels the birds are very well cared for and they serve other purposes like teaching students, blah blah blah. And that he could not let me take the Caique (a bird my colleague wanted to offer to pay him to let me take it), as it's worth $1500 and was donated to the "program". He won't let ANY birds go-they're part of the collection in his mind. I tried to stand there expressionless. He is deaf to anyone telling him anything that implies the birds need better care and company. He even said they live in palaces. Yeah, there's one amazon in an enormous cage and she never moves from one corner of a perch I brought in. Why move if you have no social or other incentive to move? She adores a bath though. The grey and goffins are in tiny cages.

I also had a chat with the newly elected UFT person, who has a couple of amazons. He admitted he doesn't visit the room because it's too sad (but I'm hoping he might some times). I realized that there aren't alot of people willing to act. But for me, out of sight does not translate to out of mind. My weekends were only peaceful when I started stopping by Fridays to make sure they had food and water. It's very sad, I'll miss them, and I can only hope something I've done or do can have a positive impact on their lives at some point. I do believe in karma and the person currently responsible for those birds will live in a bathroom-sized room in isolation with only bread to eat in some future reincarnation.

[DustyTheGrey]

Thats so sad!
Isnt there any way you can expose them and shame the school into changing their ways. If people knew about it and applied pressure to the school surely they would act.
who have you contacted so far to help you with this?