Parrot rescue

[Pajarita]

I DO NOT recommend this rescue! It sounds great when you read about it but I have had credible reports that it's not a true rescue operation but a flipping one even selling cheap birds to breeders! Beware!

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160 ... ssion.html

[liz]

Gimpy came from a "rescue". I am sure she was a flipper. She took in a cockatiel with one leg and said she could not care for him when she called me. What it was is that she could not sell him. I got a call from another "rescue" about a cockatiel with seizures. I was not sure what to do so I brought it to the humans in this forum for suggestions. I decided to get him. When I got there another cockatiel had been added to the cage. Cockatiels do not bring in much money for a flipper so she gave me both. I did not see a single seizure. She just did not want to be bothered with cockatiels.

I see adds on CL saying they will give a loving home to any parrot. It is a shame. Some people I am sure actually believe this. What this person does is get free birds then sell them for profit. Those people are the same as breeders to me. They don't see these birds as beings but see them as money.

[Wolf]

Given what I read about this person, it seems to me that she is trying to do a good thing and that if she is guilty of selling birds cheaply to some breeders that it may simply be that she is not doing enough background checking and this may be the cause of her doing this. Perhaps dropping her a line showing her the reason for your concerns might prove helpful to her and may cause her to check out where she rehomes these birds to. I don't know but it is a thought.
I can't get around making judgement calls on actions, the things that we do, but I try very hard to never pass judgements on people themselves and sometimes it is hard to keep the two things separated.

[Pajarita]

Dropping her a line will not work, I tried that and she never responds. I've been to her place... She doesn't show you the bird rooms she is supposed to have, only the living room which has several birds in there in almost complete darkness (it's an old row house with no windows in the living room and no ceiling fixtures and there were plucking birds in there -TERRIBLE!!). She talks about taking the birds to avian vets but would not provide a single piece of paperwork substantiating this claim. She solicits birds she sees advertised in CL from three states (Pa, NJ and De) and picks them up (something that rescue don't really do) and, in my personal opinion, this is the most damning piece of evidence against her as there isn't a single real rescue that would solicit birds, they are all full and often have a long waiting list for the ones that the owners want to give up. She clips every single bird she gets. She takes in the birds without their own cages (I don't know of any other rescue that routinely does this!). She is a member of a club in Philly (nowadays, bird clubs are mostly for breeders) and, taking into consideration that she 'finds homes' for birds that are super aggressive in a matter of days, it would seem that she simply sells them cheap to the breeders.

I have learned the hard way that you can't believe what people tell you or even pictures posted in the internet. Any hell hole can be made to look and sound good...

[Wolf]

The only information that I had and is what I commented on was what was posted here. It is the best that I can do, comment only on what information I have at the time.