On the Wings of Love At Temple's Aviary, Problem Birds Find Feathered 'Friends'
"This is the all-true story of Jack and Red, two parrots with serious behavior problems.
Their tale involves regurgitation, compulsive feather-plucking, Montgomery County Buddhists and a cockatoo with seasonal affective disorder. But that's not really the unusual part.
"They are so in love," said Christopher Zeoli, watching the two birds from different species clamber on top of their metal cage this week.
The birds live in a small building next to the Kunzang Palyul Chöling Buddhist temple in Poolesville, in upper Montgomery. There, following a commandment to help all living beings, Zeoli takes care of birds that are too aggressive, too frightened or too erratic to be pets.
What happened to Jack and Red there is not world-changing news. But, in a season that preaches compassion toward the less fortunate, it is a story about some of the least: With the right help, peace comes even to self-mutilating parrots.
"They're bonded for life at this point," Zeoli said. "I couldn't dare separate them."
Since the 1980s, the temple, where several hundred members practice Buddhism in the Tibetan tradition, has been housed in a white-columned mansion on a rural stretch of River Road. The idea of helping tropical birds came about 15 years ago, when the temple's founder, a Brooklyn native whose name is now Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo, adopted a Moluccan cockatoo from a friend who couldn't stand its screaming.
She soon found that the need was much greater." read article in its entirety...by David Farenthold in The Washington Post...
I found this inspiring and sad at the same time.
5 comments:
Great post Sandi
Really touching stuff
According to the National Parrot Sanctuary here in the uk, the average Parrot is rehoused 6 times in its first 2 years.
People buy them thinking its going to be a simplistic Disney experience and then quickly discover in reality they've got responsibility for a complex intelligent creature held prisoner in a cage.
The National Parrot Sanctuary has a policy of being a permanent home and of not rehousing any birds that are sent to them.
http://www.parrotsanctuary.co.uk/
Yeah, my grandmother has had a cockatoo for as long as I can remember. When I go over to visit her it's always squawking and imitating her dog's bark. It's so depressing seeing it in it's cage. Val and I are trying to find a nice place to adopt it so it won't have to spend the rest of it's life inside of a "prison". And also it's way too much for my grandmother to handle, big birds like that are a lot of work.
for a little over 3 years now I've taken responsibility for a small African Grey. He used to be the responsibility of my niece and I assume he predominantly spent his first 6 years in a cage.
I had no ambition to live with a bird, but find it difficult to say no to a living thing in need of a alright home.
He lives entirely free range in my flat, I got rid of the cage he arrived in and him and the 2 cats (who were also both in need of a new home) get on alright, they use the same water bowl etc. But fundamentally his needs are way more than I can give him, or that I feel I'm prepared to give him.
If I did decide to stop sharing my flat with him, I would only consider giving him to the uk National Parrot Sanctuary, as they promise to be a permanent home (and he'd join a flock). I couldn't stand the thought of him spending his life annoying people and being constantly rehoused or placed into isolation in a garage as some poor Parrots are.
russell, thanks for sharing the info about the National Parrot Sanctuary...caged birds make me cry with anger...once i saw an eagle in a big zoo-style cage, and that was more than i could take...i am ashamed to say that i did not break open the cage...isn't it odd that now those of us who DO ENACT ANIMAL RESCUES are considered "terrorists"??? beware the eco-terrorist!
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