The pet bird crisis is so bad that when I attended the SF Animal Welfare Commission's meeting at City Hall on 6/10 to discuss a possible ban on the sale of pets in SF, birds had been left off the list of animals being considered, despite the fact that the Bay Area's nonprofit, all volunteer Mickaboo Companion Bird Rescue is continuously overwhelmed with surrendered, abandoned and neglected pet parrots ranging from budgies and cockatiels and conures to macaws and amazons and cockatoos.

Since that meeting, birds have been added to the discussion and that is very important because consumers are, for the most part, completely unaware of what parrots require for proper care. As a result, the average parrot will be mistreated despite good intentions and, because of behaviors like screaming, destructiveness and aggression, be rehomed seven times in the first ten years of their lives.

Mickaboo Companion Rescue Organization (and its partner MickaCoo Pigeon & Dove Rescue) support the ban on pet bird sales in San Francisco and asks that you help us to get the word out about what is really happening with pet birds.  This link http://mickaboo.org/release.pdf is a Mickaboo press release for immediate distribution.

For your convenience, here are links to recent TV news coverage on the issue-

Birds may be added to ban on pet sales 6/10, SF ABC Channel 7
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=7491424

SF leaders consider bird sale ban 6/18, SF ABC Channel 7

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=7507345

And here, in an article and a book written by award-winning animal welfare journalist Mira Tweti, detailed more completely than I ever could, are the many reasons why banning pet bird sales is the right thing to do.

Plenty to Squawk About - Los Angeles Times - Award-winning LA Times Magazine expose' (which spurred the book) and helped to pass a precedent-setting bill to protect baby parrots in the pet trade (ie, pet stores &  breeders selling them too young)

http://articles.latimes.com/2003/jul/20/magazine/tm-parrots29
 

Of Parrots and People: The Sometimes Funny, Always Fascinating and Often Catastrophic Collision of Two Intelligent Species

http://www.amazon.com/Parrots-People-Fascinating-Catastrophic-Intelligent/dp/0670019690

(It was lauded by everyone from Dr. Jane Goodall to Wayne Pacelle, Prez/CEO of the Humane Society of the US).

I send you my heartfelt appreciation for your efforts on behalf of this discussion.

--
Elizabeth, MickaCoo Pigeon & Dove Rescue