My Hats Off To AA

[macawpower58]

I feel different than most here. As I agree it's not a good idea allowing parrots to mix with other pets, I do not agree with forbidding such photos and/or stories.

Every story and/or photo will be commented on, and the message will get through to the poster. But to disallow it, is IMO taking too much power, and having members keep hidden possibly a large part of their life.

So we forbid bird and pet photo, bird loose outside photo, birds in dangerous situations.

If these are a part of owning parrots (right or wrong) I don't believe we should hide them away. Allow apposing members to express their views, but also allow the owners to express theirs.

Years ago Bird Talk printed many stories that I found enthralling. One about a parrot that lived free on a boat. Years later the PC police decided to do away with all human interest stories that put parrots in any dangerous situation. It was a huge mistake in my opinion, and made the magazine dry and unappealing to me.

While I or others may not agree with what's happening, we should not be censored from seeing what others would like to share.

 

[roxynoodle]

Who has any tips on how to make over 5000 members happy?

If you ever find out let me know

 

[itzmered]

I agree if we dont allow the pictures how are newbies supposed to ever learn. I never thought anything of taking Tango outside when I first got him without a harness. If it wouldnt have been for me posting a picture and people explaining why it was such a bad idea I probably wouldnt have learned my lesson until something tragic happened

 

[SandraK]

I'd say that several of us have done some of the "stupid" things without even giving it a second thought- much like the people now who take their birds outside unharnessed and always say: "Oh they'll never fly away". The only thing that I've heard which was sadder was people who have accidentally had their (young) bird fly out the door say: and I am quoting from a real life situation last year "Oh we put his cage out so that he knows what house to come to." I could not get it through to the couple who lost this bird that their bird had no clue "where" home was because he had no reference point.

I've been in the "flew away" section a couple of times and since then I do not take anyone outside unless they are in a secured cage. My good fortune, and I don't mean to rub it int because there are too many sad stories, was that my fids stayed within a local area (2-4 blocks) and I was able to retrieve them. I swore - never again.

 

[danadear]

I disagree with censorship of any kind on public forums unless it is absolutely necessary. And even then I think it should be a group decision. If not the whole group (not possible really) at least a panel of a few members.

 

[itzmered]

Anything that is removed on here is done by a group consensus with the staff. The only time it is not discussed with all of the staff is if it is something clearly violating the rules that are posted. Even then we typically put the post in moderation and discuss it first.

 

[Hankmacaw]

About censorship. First of all this is a privately owned forum (not a public forum) and anyone who joins it agrees to follow the rules set up by management. For those who are guests - so what? First Amendment rights are only guaranteed by the gooberment.

Consider if there were no rules of engagement, then I could use my rather extensive vocabulary that I learned during my years of rodeoing. You know #@%$&, *^@$% and @%$*&, with no censorship.

Additionally, there is the Disney effect, where people have taken to heart all of the cutsey animals living together in harmony. That doesn't happen in real life. I have lived in very rural areas (out in the middle of the boondocks) and been closely associated with the natural world most of my life and I will guarantee that the lion only lies down with the lamb after he has eaten the lamb.

One of the big problems in cattle country is domesticated dogs running loose and packing and killing or maiming livestock. That's what dogs do. Nice little house cats allowed to roam kill 100s of thousands of birds, rodents, lizards and that again is what they do. Bears and mountain lions kill for the amusement. When a bear goes into an elk calving ground, they don't just kill what they can eat they, kill until they are tired of it.

My point is that there are predators and prey - our birds/bunnies are prey, our dogs, cats, ferrets, snakes, lizards... are predators. This is reality and this is the world we live in, not the world imagined by the uninformed.

 

[roxynoodle]

I had a minor emergency visit to the vet this morning because Sophie broke a blood feather, leaving a 3" piece I couldn't remove by myself.

On my way out I talked to a new amazon owner. She told me she couldn't put him in a carrier so let him ride around outside on her shoulder. I tried to explain why this wasn't safe, but she didn't believe me he could fly away. She was quite insistent he was unable to fly because he hadn't yet. Made me sad

She had had him such a short time she didn't even know what kind of bird she had. I had to tell her he was a YN.