The goal of the World Parrot Mission organization is to help homeless, helpless parrots. The Humane Society does not consider parrots to be suitable as pets; therefore, they will not accept birds in their shelters. There is a real need in our society today to have a place where birds that are no longer babies can go to live out their 100-year lifespan.
The Permanent Adoption Plan of the World Parrot Mission gets right to the heart of the issue: If you love your bird, you have a responsibility to make sure that your bird's life is a good one. Birds live a very long time. If your bird could paint a sanctuary, what would it look like? Your bird would probably paint a picture of a place where he was loved and accepted for just being a bird.
The Carolina Parakeet was a lovely green-bodied, yellow-headed, red-masked bird that was once plentiful in the southeastern United States. But after a couple centuries of being pursued by hunters, the bird disappeared in 1920. It was North Carolina's only native parrot.
So it's fitting, in a way, that a parrot-rescue organization has taken up residence in present-day North Carolina to aid non-native parrots in captivity.
"As soon as I got my Phoenix -- a large, green-winged macaw -- I said, 'My goodness, what have I done?'" Ann Brooks says of her first parrot. Nobody had told her the birds live up to 100 years, and at 60, Brooks was suddenly responsible for a young bird that could well outlive her. She searched unsuccessfully for an organization that could care for the parrot in the event she predeceased it. Finding none, she created her own, and Phoenix Landing Foundation took flight.
It's not just the death of caretakers that makes parrots homeless. Brooks explains that people may simply be in awe of the exotic birds and want one for their living room, never realizing that in their natural habitats, the birds are messy with a purpose (to feed the forest floor) and are loud for a reason (to call to their flocks). When new owners discover these traits in the confines of a house, their awe sometimes dissipates -- along with their treatment of the birds.
Think ahead. Will a lifestyle change – marriage, divorce, a new job or a move to a new home – affect your ability to keep a parrot for 5, 10, 25 years and beyond? Optimists that we are, we expect to outlive our pets, but it doesn't always turn out that way.
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