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we operate a wild
parrot conservation project in the south American country of Guyana
%um
wild scarlet macaw
also %uh amazon parrots in guyana
this is a hyacinth macaw
%uh located in brazil
this is the way we want to see parrots
%uh this is a photograph actually these are %uh naturalized ring necked parrots
in the netherlands they are
considered an invasive species
this is one of the problems that the wild bird conservation act hopes to curtail
this is exportation of parrots
these are dozens of macaws crammed into crates and this is generally on had has been the
fate of parrots in the wild wild bird conservation that
%um
took the united states off the market for parrots but that's still left all of Europe
and asia opened to parrot importations it's been a lucrative business around
the world
these are parrots in guyana
%uh guyana is one of two countries in south America that still legally exports its wildlife
which is why on and is the place that we chose to work because
the trappings of parrots is still
going on there
okay one of the unintended consequences of the wild bird conservation act was that
%uh was a sudden acceleration of domestic breeding
of so-called cage or companion birds in this country and down %uh much to the detriment
of captive birds found there was no federal regulations in place to govern
domestic breeding practices
and down this is this industry remains largely unregulated on the federal and state level
to this day there are very few
laws in place to protect
parrots and
the avian industry is really highly motivated to keep it that way and they will
fight
%uh tooth and nail to make sure that no legislation to protect parrots in the trade
is ever past
%uh this is a picture of %uh
of breeding facility and
I'm sure there are breeding facilities around the country I don't want to make a blanket
statement the are not all horrible
but the vast majority of them look like this
%uh when you read the ads for
%uh from breeders
%uh lot of times they're producing twenty or thirty different kinds
of parrots
what do you think the conditions are like
%uh all these pictures and I'm showing you are from
well known
breeding facilities
that %uh pump thousands hundreds of thousands of parrots into the pet trade every year
%uh they are parrot mills
much on the same lines as puppy mills 0:03:02.639,0:03:05.749 and these are perfectly acceptable
its beaches down in north Carolina
and then these are the conditions
these birds you know at least they get sunshine but they have very little else they don't
have very much room
to spread their wings they certainly don't have any enrichments
these are dirty bowls was once again really hard to see but it's
mud water
the conditions are bare bones
and this is on prevalent all over the united states
because there are no laws to govern this is a matter of fact
is a long most places if you can show that there's some kind of shelters some kind of
evidence of a bird having had food and water and in in a state that's about
all they need and and there is nothing that the law can do to come into a place like this
I mean look at this poor guy he's only got one eye I had to throw a few in because
this is a pretty pathetic situation
but this is what's happening to birds all over the country
and I'm
this is what
we're motivated to deal with
but it's hard because once again there are no laws
there's nothing that any agency can come in to do to help these birds
these are birds that were put up for public auction
recently
and these are the birds that are on producing the babies that you see in the pet stores so it looks like
a happy situation in the pet stores 0:04:25.449,0:04:26.519 but 0:04:26.519,0:04:28.379 it's hell behind the scenes
and I think that one of our biggest frustrations as a parrot rescue organization is the fact that
when babies are bred under these kinds of conditions and on than are removed from their
parents you've got parrots of deprivation you've got another species raising
a species you have
%uh feeding where there's
no nurturing
%uh no care
%um
the forced weaning %uh all of these things impact the psychology of a parrot
so you end up with is a product
that's is basically a psychologically damaged animal that doesn't even stand a chance
of being a good pet
parrots are highly intelligent just like
dolphins or primates or humans
%uh intelligence species
do require a prolonged nurturing period in order to be
well adjusted adults