Saw this today.....

[wildirish]

on another board, and got a little ticked off!

http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/p...post?id=400274

Maybe I am a little jaded as I have been to this rescue and wasn't very impressed with what I saw, but heck I don't even remember this newsletter??????

[ParrotletLover]

That is insane.

[TooLover]

Once again I am confused! Which Birdboard newsletter? And did we mention them specifically?

[Tiki]

I put together that particular newsletter and we never advocated irresponsible breeding as this lady seems to think. We offered helpful articles to discourage inexperienced people from handfeeding, hints to bring home a baby bird and more:


"Bringing Home A Baby"
"The Dangers of Handfeeding" by Ellie Mae
First Aid Kit for birds.....are YOU prepared?
Looking to Buy or Sell? Bird Board Classifieds
is just for you! Read or Post Ads
Franky and our "Fearless Leader"
"A bird by any other name"
Members share origins of their bird's names.
Shop for your bird until you drop!
Bird Behaviour: "Her chirping is stressing me out!"
Parent birds are plucking babies.....what to do?
Check Local Events & Bird Shows In Your Area
Bird Board Events Calendar is There for you!
Should I get a Rose-breasted Cockatoo (Galah)?
Inspirational: One member fights to save his beautiful Scarlet Macaw

I don't know how to linkt to the original newletter, it came out in April.

There is nothing in there to invite this sort of comment. Baby birds are beautiful, joyful creatures who SHOULD be celebrated, loved and cherished!

[The Outlaw]

Once again, a tired, stressed-out, middle-aged woman in over her head and wondering how it happened. It happened because SHE couldn't say NO. That is why I don't support rescues. If you invite the public to drop off their unwanted pets and then bitch about it, who is really at fault?

Birds are beguiling, beautiful and fascinating. Its hard to say no, but grown-ups can and do all the time. As I've tried to stress a thousand times, if you can save ONE, then you've done your part. Not 100, just one. Most folks can manage one bird throughout their lifetime.

The reality is this: at some point, there WILL be mass euthanasia of parrots that cannot find homes. It will be horrible and hopefully, it will put an end to the mass production of exotic birds. When the market no longer exists, there will no longer be an incentive to breed. We reap what we sow.

[kensbuns]

I am sorry I have to agree with her about the baby birds but she had no right to dog us that way without getting to know us!! But oh well you know what they say about opinions!!!

[Monica]

"Blah Blah Blah" sounds about right...

Tammy, it's a pity you say you weren't all that impressed with the rescue as they have a really lovely site with good info! More of a pity to think how much they probably have to spend on that website alone to keep it open (depending on who hosts it, they could well be spending over $200 alone a YEAR on that site to keep it up and running, WITH their own domain name, etc).

I would like to say however, that someone from that particular Bird Club (from that link), actually went out of their way to yell at me telling me that toucans, and other birds DO NOT belong in captivity. I had only simply asked her why she thought birds shouldn't be in captivity, and she became pissed, and yet at the same time it sounds as if he owns birds (kind of like an anti-smoker smoking, and not going to quit... what's the point again?). This person was mentioning how toucans should live in the wild with their families and that there should be a law passed to prevent people from keeping toucans. I mentioned to her that there are other pets who are not domesticated, though cats and dogs are, so was curious as to why she mentioned toucans shouldn't be in captivity. I had also mentioned that I met two toucans, and as long as the person had a large aviary or bedroom for a toucan with lots of perches, it would be an 'ideal closure'. However, this was their reply....

Toucons
I really like the way you refer to your birds as IT. That says it all. You think a bird is an inanimate object like a chair or a table.

You feel they are not living things anyways, so stick them in a cage or a room.....whatever.

As long as YOU have your enjoyment. I am sure the toucon would much rather be with other toucons who he can breed with, but you never would ask him. He has no say. I hope one day aliens capture you and put you in a small cage. They wont speak your language so they cant even ask you if it okay. Parrots, btw, also belong with other parrots in the wild.

The saddest part about her post was that she couldn't even spell toucan correctly! I just figured that if they had any right to argue about an animal, they should first know about the animal, and know how to correctly SPELL it's name...

[ParrotletLover]

I was not impressed by their website, either. It reminded me of one particular "rescue" as well. They come off all nice and with a definite purpose, but they have their own agendas behind all of their "lets help" facade.

They should not be throwing away any money on a website if they are truly working so deligently on saving these animals. There are plenty of free websites, but to be honest, if they are as strapped as they imply (for time and money) they shouldn't be spending all of this time on the internet, arguing with people. They should be focusing on saving these animals.

Nancy said it PERFECTLY. That is exactly what it is.

[Alika]

There is a lot of untrue crap in that link. How upsetting.

I hate it when people jump on a bandwagon led by an extremist without bothering to find out all the facts.

The zoos comment ticked me off, too... but that's another story. I don't know what the stats are on other animals, but most birds (I'm including raptors, parrots, and others) live almost twice as long in captivity as they do in the wild. But yeah. I won't get into that.

[wildirish]

This is my reply to it......

I am also a member of Birdboard, and didn't see this issue.

However I have been to the Tropics, and while Mary states that she mortgaged her house for the 7th times, she isn't telling you that she told my husband and I and another lady who was also visiting that one of the mortgages paid for her Hy, Angel, who has nerve damage.

I know she needs help, but before you preach at everyone else, do some checkig on where the info is coming from as there are quite a few people who seem to know alot obout Mary and things that have gone on at her rescue. I know while we were there I wasn't very impressed at all.

I realize this will probably be deleted, but I hope that some will read it. I am not against rescues, hell my house is full of rescues, I do however have a problem with anyone who spent tons of money on a dome (finished over 2 years ago) and then put no live plants(just a couple metal palm trees) in it, had slimy water in the fountain and mostly smaller birds like conures and zons in a huge place while the majority of the caws and even her mascot M2 living in medium cages in a dark narrow over crowded enclosed aviary, while telling us how the conures had already ganged up and killed a couple of the zons.

I am not saying I don't agree about breeding and overpopulation, I do! But cannot take a lecture from Mary when I have seen firsthand what she does or doesn't do. I think she is like most larger rescues, start out doing great, get in over thier heads and then go downhill. I know her and her husband have been in ill health, yet we went to help clean for them and volunteer our time (away from our birds for the day) and no matter how times we asked for brooms ect, she continued to sit in her living room with her Hy and telling all the sob stories to the other lady visiting.

When talking to her, I was going there to also find out the number and types of birds going to a friends rescue and took plenty of pix, she told me on the phone that she didn't think we had enough money to help these birds, simply because my hubby was checking the oil in his car and fixing something, she was snide enough about it that we almost didn't go at all. Then as we were getting ready to leave allowed us to take a picked on small BFA amazon home with us.

I have never voiced my thoughts on what I saw while there about a year ago. I have kept quiet as I didn't think she needed more things being said about the Tropics, but this is crazy, that newsletter had one little thing about bring home babies, then the DANGERS of handfeeding and why you shouldn't, how to make a first aid kit ect. Some one posted the list of topics in it for us to see.

We can preach till we are blue in the face that breeding hsould stop and only adopt, but in the real world, it so isn't going to happen, and I also feel that we should help people no matter what, most of the people who are now against breeding have bought at least one of thier birds, INCLUDING Mary Bradford!!!!