Seriously Idiotic Parrot Owners

[pchela]

I personally have no problem with a parrot swearing, in fact, I'm one of those crazy people who find it amusing as hell. The kid in the video had me laughing too. The laughing parrots are cute and I see absolutely no problem with this. The swearing, though it's silly and just a word that would mean nothing if society didn't deem it "bad", I can understand as being a problem with rehoming, but even then, I believe most people would still take a swearing parrot and simply retrain them not to swear (which can be done).

[alight15]

If we're talking about society in this matter,what about how we're desensitized to parrots swearing because of how long people have been teaching them(on purpose or accident) to do so.

But, yea most people wouldn't mind,they'd probably show it off at one point or other as well.

I just think you're detaching yourself a bit from your pets when you make them accept the kind of words that wouldnt work in our world. Like teaching a puppy to attack on the command "there's a good boy" and making him sit on the command "kill" he'll not be able to fit into our society even though he hasnt done anything wrong except follow what he was taught were orders.

[pchela]

Hmmm... I wouldn't say I'm desensitized to something that is not a sensitive issue to me in the first place.

I'm not really following the rest of your argument. I'm not detaching myself from my pet by teaching him to swear... it's not the same thing as teaching a puppy to attack.

BTW- I don't teach my parrots to swear, I just don't have a problem with other people doing so. They will probably inadvertently learn to swear living with me and my husband though... we have potty mouths.

[alight15]

I was talking about those people who teach them to swear,because it is not communication to humans,but the parrot thinks it's saying some thing to us that we understand

[scrobytilt]

This maybe one of the single most terrible things I have ever seen. I don't understand how the news anchors found it funny the birds looked miserable. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... .htmlstory

[Kim S]

I hear parrots do this in the wild aswel. Eating fermented berries and get drunk.
I wonder what the evolutionary advantage of that is

[MandyG]

The laughing just creeped me out though,I can imagine they laughed while the parrot was imitating the laughing and reinforced it(as my sister does kissing back when her budgie "kisses")while the parrot is innocently trying to communicate with them.

I really don't see how laughing is creepy. My parrot laughs at appropriate times and every person that has heard him thinks it's adorable. I love it when he laughs at the same time I do, it shows that he feels like he's part of the 'flock'.

I was talking about those people who teach them to swear,because it is not communication to humans,but the parrot thinks it's saying some thing to us that we understand

Swearing is communication for humans... and we do understand what it means. Also, many parrots that swear use the words correctly.

My Amazon knows a few curse words. They weren't taught to him intentionally but he did pick them up. He used to use them correctly but he rarely uses them anymore since we don't talk that way in front of him.

[Athena&beepbeep'smom]

The worst story of parrot abuse I know is one I saw up close. There was an ad for an amazon to be rehomed she was 20 years old and "very sweet" according to the ad. I hadn't gotten my second bird yet at the time and liked the idea of rescuing an adult in need though I thought an amazon might be a bit out of my experience league but I decided to go meet her. She was in a cage far far too small she was in terrible feather and when I got there the lady coaxed her out of the cage with a hotdog. Yes that's right I worry about too much seed giving my bird gout and how many leafy green veggies can you have before it's dangerous and calcium binding and she fed the amazon a hot dog. Then she said the bird would like me if I fed her the hotdog but I refused on principle. The whole time this lady is blowing cigarette smoke right in the birds face and when she spread her wings I realized with horror that they had been pinioned. Turns out this was an illegally smuggled wild caught amazon. I was disgusted and said as much and I would have loved to take her out of there, but she was sooo aggressive. And she was a plucker and cage bound, just way above my experience level so I posted her on some sites that I new some more experienced locals were active. I certainly hope she found a great home. It was just awful!

[TheNzJessie]

i have some more to add for drinking parrots. i promise you these will make you sick with worry.

[Michael]

OMG! How do people find this funny!?