The Department of Agriculture has completed their investigation for the tragedy that occurred here on January 1, 2018. Unfortunately, they are at a stand still and have basically ended as "inconclusive" without more evidence.
This has been a long journey. 8 months. And obviously, my heart is broken that we will never know with certainty what the cause of the worst night of my life was.
But, I told you guys I'd tell you, and I'm telling you.
The good news is that the deaths that have been regularly reported to me have slowed way down to none.
What have we learned?
1) That when our birds pass away suddenly, a necropsy and histopathology are necessary.
2) Finding a substance without knowing what that substance is, is like looking for Jimmy Hoffa.
3) That people on the internet can be cruel and terrible. That it doesn't matter how much good you've done in the world, there are people who just want to tear you down.
4) That while the above is true, there's many, many more perfect strangers that are kind and good. And that's always what we should focus on.
5) It wasn't air, disease, water, or sickness that killed 5 macaws, 2 cockatoos, 2 amazons and 2 conures that night.
6) That I'm stronger than I ever knew.
7) Lines were drawn in the bird community, and I'm not really sure why that happened. All we ever asked for were for people to avoid 2 batches of food. Just 2.
8)Our rescue is strong and moving ahead. That hasn't changed, nor will it.
I am blessed to have so many of you as friends through this tragedy. That's the real silver lining here.
I appreciate every single one of you and your words of kindness.
And to Zupreem, we will never know what happened that night. I apologize for the bad press that resulted from our tragedy, and the words I wrote. I did what I thought was the right thing to try to save as many lives as I could. I cannot regret that decision to go public.
I am sorry for the vitriol that happened as a result of it though, towards you, your company and your products. I don't feel like it had to be this way. There were several things on both sides that happened that caused that part of this to ripple out of control. I am so very sorry for that.
At the end of the day, we both have the same goal: to protect the health and welfare of companion parrots. I don't think that has changed. I wish you the very best as you continue on, and hope you will accept my apology. It was never my intention to cause harm to a company, I simply wanted to save as many lives as humanly possible.
<3
Now. Let's get this year over with. 2019 for the win.
