“They are waiting for you”
Yesterday the world celebrated the International Bird Day. The date gives one more reason to speak about humane and respectful attitude to our pets
The Day often writes about birds and their relations with humans. Our publications tell how people rescue swans that stayed to winter in Ukraine, or cranes that have come from warm Africa right in the middle of March snowfall. We write about the birds living nearby, in parks, yards, and forests, about the great symbolical meaning they have for our culture.
On the International Bird Day we decided to meet with the head of ZOOSVIT civic organization Olena Hoienko to find out more about the life of birds that live with people. What needs to be done to make them happy? How to decode their desires and moods, catch their communication signals? It turns out that birds love their owners, miss them and worry when the latter are absent for a long time, and they joyfully meet them upon return.
“Birds are not a toy. Neither are they an interior detail. They are full-fledged members of the family,” Hoienko explains. In her apartment there is a room for big cages where gray parrots live, for they cannot be placed into a small cage. Olena is a biologist and she has been fond of animals since her childhood. She founded the ZOOSVIT organization which promotes civilized breeding of birds and small-sized pets. For domestic birds need no less attention and responsible treatment than their wild relatives.
“This is Fedia,” Hoienko acquaints us with one of her gray parrots: we have bought him out, because he was living in an office after changing three owners. He was living in a small cage and forgot how to fly. Fedia can bite because he remembers how people treated him. Klavdia, living next to him, has been transported by subpurchasers in improper conditions: many birds were dying next to her, and this is a big stress for gray parrots, therefore she has not rallied yet, from time to time she tears off her feathers.
Responsible attitude to birds is what worries Hoienko the most. First, every bird should have registration and documentation proving that it has been bred in Ukraine, in captivity, that it is not a wild bird. The bird’s pedigree will tell the owners about its health – this is also a precaution, as illegal exotic birds can transmit quite exotic diseases.
Gray parrot is a one family bird. It can live up to the age of 70 in good conditions. The purchasers should be aware of this responsibility – that you take the bird forever. “Gray parrot is an intellectual bird, it can develop to the level of a 5-6 year old child,” Olena explains. Every bird has its specific character and it is important to adapt to it, the biologist considers. If the bird bites, one should understand why it does so: as a rule the bird is dissatisfied with something. And people think the bird is aggressive.
Hoienko does not understand the parents who buy the bird for a child to learn to look after it. “Animals are not a toy. If parents do not look after it and don’t love it, the child won’t love it either. Parents should understand that taking a bird home is a great responsibility and that namely their actions will foster love to all living creatures in a child. When taking care of the animal is made the duty of the child, s/he starts resisting. So, we will foster disrespect in children towards animals, unwillingness to look after those who live with them, – hence the unwillingness to take care of family, the diseased, and the elderly.”
