I’m copying the letter that the parrot foundation sent me. This letter is from the person who found the birds and called the humane society. For those who are curious, it also includes info on what types of birds were found (although I think the parrot foundation has other birds they need to foster, too).
On Friday, January 29, 2009, while working at PetsMart, I received a phone call from a woman named Wendy around 7:00 pm. She was extremely upset and told me that she had several parrots in her home that belonged to her nephew. She then told me that her nephew had been sent to the hospital and she did not know how to care for all of the birds. She went on to explain that there were several in cardboard boxes and cat carriers which did not have any food or water. She was not a bird person and was understandably afraid of these birds, having never handled any birds before. I agreed to come over to her house when I got off work at 10:00 pm and help with the birds. When I first arrived at the house, Wendy took me to the basement. There were loose Ring Neck Parakeets flying around and being chased by the cats that were in the house as well. When I went to catch the birds, it was obvious that they had not been handled much by humans. After catching the four parakeets, I fed them along with two mini Macaws and two Cockatoos that were in cat carriers. They were extremely hungry. There were also three fish tanks in the basement. I fed the Oscars, which had a dirty tank, along with a tank Barbs. There was also a salt water tank that I couldn’t even see inside because the glass was covered in grime. I then went into the dimly lit laundry room that two baby birds in a plastic container. When opening the top of this container, the smell was so terrible that most people would have vomited. The baby birds were standing in their own feces. With the knowledge I have about birds and their sensitive respiratory systems, I knew that I had stumbled upon a bad situation. I also found two younger babies that were in a 10 gallon aquarium, under a towel, dead.
Next, Wendy took us upstairs. The first room that she took us to was filled with birds and smelled terrible. There were probably around 50 birds in this tiny room. The walls were covered in breeder bird cages. It was obvious that whoever had set these birds up had them solely to make babies. They were scared of people and did not know what to do when I was there. There were pairs in every cage and nesting boxes set up in every cage. All of the birds had water bottles that looked like they had not been cleaned since set up. Each of the food bowls had a layer of grim/mold covering the bottom. Hardly any of the birds had toys and there were only a few perches (which were often covered in droppings) available for them in each cage. The cages did not look like they had been cleaned since set up. The paper under the grates had been changed, but there were droppings all over the sides of the cages and pretty much everywhere else as well. The floor also had obviously not been vacuumed or cleaned in a while. The birds in this room were in extremely poor conditions and they stayed in this room, they probably would have lived very short lives.
Finally, the last room had a cage with two pairs of cockatiels and several cardboard boxes containing birds. Two Green-Cheeked Conures had chewed through their cardboard box and were roaming free on the dresser. When I offered them some pieces of apple, they immediately flew onto the bowl I was holding and starting eating as much as they could as fast as they could. These birds were starving. There were also two Nanday Conures flying free in this room. The other boxes had cockatiels and green cheeks, which were in complete darkness inside their boxes. I tried to get these birds to eat but they would not move in the darkness. There were no places available for any of these birds, so I had to leave them in the cardboard boxes. I caught the loose birds and put them in cat carrier type cages.
The conditions that I witnessed the birds of this house living in disturbed me more than anything I had ever seen in my life. I was completely astounded and in shock after seeing these birds. I can’t imagine how anyone could treat any living animal the way these birds were treated.
First thing in the morning on Saturday, I went to the humane society and told them all what I had seen. I told them how these birds needed to be removed from that house immediately. They told me that they would take care of it within 24 hours.