There are all kinds of pet shops and bird shops out there. When I lived in Florida in the late 70s, there were bird specialty shops on every corner. Here in the North, there were a couple of Bird Specialty shops, but not a great number. Department stores had parakeets and canaries and sometimes even BB parrots in their little pet departments. Individual pet stores usually had a couple of imported Amazons or a Grey. Parrots are much more popular nowadays and hand fed domestic babies are much better pets for the most part. There are a lot of bird specialty stores now and many of the big department stores don’t exist anymore and if they do, they don’t sell animals, which is a good thing. Back then, both in Florida and up here, there was a great deal of difference in the quality of pet shops, bird shops and Department store shops. Some were very clean, reputable and had knowledgeable staff. Others were dirty, attempted to mislead you and if the staff were knowledgeable, used this knowledge against you. There was a shop in Miami that constantly tried to pass off Orange Wings as Blue Fronts, and when confronted, they would come up with some nonsense about it being a Bolivian Blue Front or something like that. It was a large shop, sold a lot of birds and was disgusting. Today, we have the Internet and some of the people who advertise are probably very reputable and others are probably horror stories just waiting to happen.

I bought a Green wing Macaw from a Breeder that I would recommend to anyone. We drove 250 miles and they drove about 150 miles for us to meet. They brought three birds for us to choose from that were all very well cared for. They had been sexed, vet checked and inoculated. The people even gave us a subscription to the Pet Bird Report as a gift and called to see how the baby was doing. Let me know if you are looking for a Macaw or Cockatoo and I will give you contact information. On the other hand, I am still waiting to get part of my deposit back from another Internet contact.

The other thing that we see today is large-scale franchise pet shops. In terms of the parrots I saw in one store, I was not happy with how they were kept. After talking with the staff, I found out the two birds I asked about had been in the store for a considerable period of time and for all practical purposes received no attention. If I remember correctly, their cages were on the floor and they were in a room with small birds, small animals and reptiles. I have heard many horror stories about some of these chains. I have a friend who is kind of a revolutionary in regard to this problem and has taken an active part in going to these stores to try to get things corrected. I admire him for his endeavors, but am not really sure what he has accomplished in the overall scheme of things. I know of other people who complain about these stores and still buy things from them. These stores only motivation is to make money in my opinion and the only way to improve conditions is to not give them our money. I believe that we can make an attempt to educate them both at the store level and the central office corporate level. I doubt, however, that this will really have any lasting impact. Some people try to do things through the SPCA, Humane Society or other government entity. I think that no matter what I say here I am going to irritate people. I absolutely believe in the humane and proper treatment of all animals. I think the first thing we have to stop doing is to give these stores any money and let them know why if you so choose. Some people are really good Samaritans and buy the birds to save them from these conditions. Those people are truly wonderful, but by buying the birds the store has made money and gained a place to bring in another bird. In the long run, this just keeps the situation going. We should not buy anything from any store that does not treat these animals properly, whether it is a chain, mom and pop pet store, or bird specialty store. I also question to some extent the bringing in of government officials. Why, you ask? Laws scare me. Politicians who really don’t know anything about the real situation often enact laws related to the keeping of animals. They are looking for votes. Animal rights fanatics would like to see all animals removed from our home. Unfortunately, they fail to consider that removing birds from aviculture will likely lead to their total extinction, as more and more wild birds become endangered due to the loss of habitat, not aviculture. So many laws just don’t make sense. I don’t believe that the average person should have any endangered species, but on the other hand, legitimate breeders could be of benefit to the species. Animals are, and always have been, a major part of my life (ask my parents) I don’t want more of them taken away from us due to more unnecessary laws, that are created by the uneducated. I think our focus should be geared more towards educating the politician. I also believe that involvement in the SPCA and the Humane Society is a smart thing. I have applications for my wife and I to join the local SPCA. It is our hope that we can be of benefit, given that we have a lot of experience with birds, reptiles and some other animals that are considered Exotic. I don’t believe that various reptiles and birds are appropriate pets for many households, and the public needs to be educated. On the other hand, I don’t believe that people who are knowledgeable and can provide an appropriate environment for certain animals should not be allowed to have them due to misguided legislation. I believe that those of us whose lives revolve around animals need to legislate ourselves. That is a major undertaking. So how do we do it? Join all the organizations that you can related to animals you are interested in. In terms of birds, join the American Federation of Aviculture, The World Parrot Trust and other international and national organizations, as well as your local bird clubs (my wife and I belong to three) and your species organizations. Get as involved as you can. Do your best to promote education of the general public, so animals aren’t bought on impulse and improperly cared for. Attempt to be aware of pending legislature at all levels of government, which are related to animals and write your politicians and make them aware of how you stand on the various issues. If you become aware of animals being treated improperly a store in your area, make the membership aware, so they can make others aware that money should not be spent at these stores. If we hit them in the pocket book at the local level and they know why, it just might make a difference. Getting the government involved in every situation just might place more restrictions on us, and I feel there are just too many laws already.

I’ve spent most of this article talking about the negatives and shops that are only about money. On the other side of the coin, there are some excellent shops out there. These are general privately owned pet shops which are great and there are also some very good bird only shops. I am not here to advertise, but in terms of all bird shops there are several that I think are excellent. We should spend our money at the shops that truly care about the animals and have knowledgeable staff and owners. We should recommend them to our friends and associates so that the good places stay in business and aren’t run out by those shops that are not so reputable. Well that’s it for this time. Take care, Be Healthy and Happy.

Till next time. ED