19/11/2024
I love this! Adoption is the way to go ❤️
I responded to a gal today who was feeling terrible for birds at a chain pet store.
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I’m sure what I’m about to tell you isn’t what you’re going to want to hear.
When you buy birds from Petsmart, or Pet Supplies Plus, or Petco, or any big chain pet store, really – as much as your heart is leaning into it – it’s not rescue. They’re babies. They’ll find a home.
When you give your money to one of those big chain stores – all you’re doing is funding them to buy more. And more. And more. And more. And more. There are giant bird farms down in Oklahoma, where they are mass producing these birds, and bringing them to the chains, where they then sell them to people who don’t know what they’re doing.
At best, they learn and become one of us - a bird person who does their very best. At worst, they go get another one when this one stops being pliable, because “he needs a friend!” or “they were born to mate. He needs a mate!” and they double the problem, and double down for Pet Store, that people will buy their animals. Then they inadvertently breed. And so on and so forth – and then, they call us to take on the problem they’ve multiplied because they “just don’t have time anymore.”
If you’re giving organizations or stores money to solve a problem they don’t think is a problem – you’re not fixing anything. You’re just a customer.
And they certainly don’t see it as a problem. Which is evidenced by the 20 something green cheeks we have in the rescue right now.
It's probably not a popular opinion, but it’s the truth.
I’ll probably make this a post. Please don’t feel targeted – it’s not you. It’s them. Sometimes, I swear they make them look pathetic just to rub on your heart strings so you’ll go “rescue” that under one year old little conure.
Meanwhile, we have 20+ who are in various stages of training and life cycles here at the rescue, for a fraction of the cost, who are probably more healthy, have already been converted to a good diet, and have already been detoxed off the crap seed that they’ve grown accustomed to at those stores who don’t educate themselves OR their customers, and who don’t take great care of them to get them a good start at life.
Please don’t support it. Because that’s what you’re doing. You’re funding that.
If you are bound and determined not to adopt a bird who is in rescue, then at least go to a family owned bird specialty store like Casa La Parrot, where I know that the birds are cared for with top notch care by people who genuinely care about them.
