Quaker slaughter in FLA

[Lynjupiter]

The guest speaker tonight at my bird was the Davey's of quakerville.com.
The Daveys Jon-Mark and JoAnne have written a book Parrots In The City and are known for trying to stop FPL from killing quakers. They do it by talking to them and asking to rescue the babies in nests being pulled down. I don't know what I expected. Maybe I had visions of bird lovers being there when FPL went after a nest. Sadly this is not true.

When FPL pulls down a nests they go in at night while the colony is a sleep and gases the whole nest with carbon monoxide. When I asked what to do they said to put a note in with my bill asking them to stop. At this time there is no real solution. What they need is a network across the state of people ready to drop everything at a moments notice, run to the nest and accept the rescued babies. Then another network of experinced handfeeders to feed the babies and sell them. Unfortantley there are not enough quaker lovers ready to drop everything to rescue the quakers. We need state laws protecting our wild parrots. I am really just writing this to rant and maybe inform other customers of Florida Power and Light of what is happening.
I had no idea. I wish I still had no idea. The thought of whole colonies of quakers dying makes me feel sick. I get such joy out of seeing them flying wild.
Lynda

[Monica]

I remember reading a story somewhere where a lady saved quite a lot of quaker babies and ended up keeping one for herself. It was the power company that got the chicks for her during the daytime though if she hadn't gone alone I don't know what would have happened....

[Joel]

Thanks for the notification Lynda, I had no idea they do that. I plan to make a few calls tomorrow or Monday at the latest.......I thought FPL workers go in at daytime and take the babies out and sell them to the local pet shops, would be some nice side money for them. I know I would go at a moments notice to pick up the babies at any hr. they called me. I'll let ya know what I find out........How cruel.... :icon_eek:

Originally Posted by Lynjupiter

The guest speaker tonight at my bird was the Davey's of quakerville.com.
The Daveys Jon-Mark and JoAnne have written a book Parrots In The City and are known for trying to stop FPL from killing quakers. They do it by talking to them and asking to rescue the babies in nests being pulled down. I don't know what I expected. Maybe I had visions of bird lovers being there when FPL went after a nest. Sadly this is not true.

When FPL pulls down a nests they go in at night while the colony is a sleep and gases the whole nest with carbon monoxide. When I asked what to do they said to put a note in with my bill asking them to stop. At this time there is no real solution. What they need is a network across the state of people ready to drop everything at a moments notice, run to the nest and accept the rescued babies. Then another network of experinced handfeeders to feed the babies and sell them. Unfortantley there are not enough quaker lovers ready to drop everything to rescue the quakers. We need state laws protecting our wild parrots. I am really just writing this to rant and maybe inform other customers of Florida Power and Light of what is happening.
I had no idea. I wish I still had no idea. The thought of whole colonies of quakers dying makes me feel sick. I get such joy out of seeing them flying wild.
Lynda

[Tiki]

That is sickening what they are doing to poor innocent birds! And I thought it was bad that farmers here shoot galahs ( to stop them eating their crops), I can't see why this FPL company would do such a thing. Why would they want to kill them anyway? (There is another topic around here that quakers are forbidden as pets but I didn't think any one was killing them!)

If you guys can get an email or regular address I am sure we can get the force of Birdboard after these FPL people.

Another idea is to get a local "current affairs" type tv program after them, maybe film them doing this and get the public against them and make them stop......just an idea.......

I just had another idea...maybe we need a "Birds in Danger" forum to put cases like this so we can all get behind them?

[TooLover]

Joel,
Please let us know what you find out................
Thanks!

[HareTrinity]

If it's any reassurance, though; carbon monoxide (e.g. car exhaust) is supposed to be the quickest and easiest ways to die...

Even the conscious birds wouldn't have even felt short of breath; just slowly get giddy, fall unconscious, and die in what is, considering many methods of "pest destruction", a peaceful way to go... Afterall, rat poison still works by burning them up from inside-out.

Not that I support ANY method of "pest destruction"; the only reason wild animals start to live somewhere is because they're okay there, and if humans want to get rid of them, they should change the area (which usually includes simply cleaning up after themselves), not the state of the animals.

But, since you mentioned trying to get more people aware; petitionsite.com is relatively easy to log onto, and has a lot of viewers, so...

Maybe we should set up a petition there?

[Lynjupiter]

Originally Posted by Monica

I remember reading a story somewhere where a lady saved quite a lot of quaker babies and ended up keeping one for herself. It was the power company that got the chicks for her during the daytime though if she hadn't gone alone I don't know what would have happened....

Yes that was JoAnn Davey. The one she kept hatched in her hands. Even though they brought it to a very good bird person for some reason the little quaker recived some sort of brain damage. They named the little quaker Miracle.

The book Parrots In The City talks about that rescue, FPL and the way quakers are filling in a niche that the Carolina Parakeet left behind. Not only here in Florida but all over the Eastren United States. You can get more info on the book at www.quakerville.com
Lynda

[Lynjupiter]

I am taking the Davey's out on a parrot tour today ( even though it is a miserable rainy day) and I will talk more with them on what we can do and if maybe we can make a moments notice list of FPL customers ready to rescue Quakers. This is the first place I posted since we have an abundance of Floridians on this board.

Lynda

[Lynjupiter]

Here is what the FPL website says on quakers

http://www.fpl.com/environment/exoti...parakeet.shtml

They say the quakers need to be managed appropriatley but don't say how they do it.

Address: FPL, P.O. Box 025576, Miami, FL 33102

I will also get the info and start a online petition. Thanks HareTrinity. I know FPL is being very humane with there slaughter but I wish there was something else they could do. The Daveys did say that FPL has done many things to try and stop the quakers from nesting. Special paint, even speakers that blared out birds of prey noises. Unfortantley the quakers thought the speakers were a big joke . They said that the quakers were sitting on the speakers imitating the noises coming out LOL.
Lynda

[HareTrinity]

It's a very serious and sad situation, but the Quakers copying the bird of prey sound effects... That's funny [Insert :p here]

Let me know when the petition's up, I'll go sign it.

As for bird control, what I know of it isn't too much, but it includes limitting their food supply (generally the cause of ALL "pests" is that people leave their favourite food lying about and wonder why the animals gather) and putting up models of birds of prey (which would probably help to put them off from a distance).

[Does a little research]

Trapping, culling (killing, through shooting and such), predators, diversionary feeding, restricting food sources, repellents, barriers, scaring, or a combination of methods...

Parrots are pretty adaptive little critters, though... They have them living wild in the UK now, too. But England's crowded and full of animal-lovers, so I doubt they'd dare classifying them as a "pest" here unless they attacked someone...