It’s one of those unlikely natural outcomes of the so-called anthropocene, the first epoch to be named after us: the prolonged confinement of intelligent and social creatures, compelling them to speak the language of their keepers. And now, in yet another unlikely occurrence, parrots, among the oldest victims of human acquisitiveness and vainglory, have become some of the most empathic readers of our troubled minds. Their deep need to connect is drawing the most severely wounded and isolated PTSD sufferers out of themselves. In an extraordinary example of symbiosis, two entirely different outcasts of human aggression — war and entrapment — are somehow helping each other to find their way again.


user-inactivated:

I work a weekly shift at the Minnesota parrot rescue mentioned in the article (Midwest Avian Adoption and Rescue Services)! This is such a lovely article, thanks for sharing!

    Abandoned pet parrots are twice-traumatized beings: denied first their natural will to flock and then the company of the humans who owned them.

^ This is a great way to succinctly sum up the plight of domestic parrots. They absolutely don't belong in captivity, but they're taken out of the wild at astounding rates in certain countries, and sold at high prices. It's illegal in many countries to import birds, but they're still smuggled in. The people who buy them generally have no clue what it's like living with a parrot (hint: they're generally extremely loud and demanding), and usually end up giving them up pretty quickly. Parrots often try to form a mated bond with the owner (usually unbeknownst to the owner), which leads to a lot of frustration for the bird. Often this means that the bird will be hostile towards any other people living in the house than the person it sees as its mate. And then when they're abandoned, it feels like it's been deserted by its mate.

If anybody's interested in learning more about parrots in captivity, there's a really great hour-long PBS documentary that you can watch for free on the PBS website if you're in the US.


posted 3002 days ago