Animal Advocates To Advise Yacolt City Leaders At Meeting To Discuss Fate Of Feral Parrots

Yacolt , Wash. -- Animal advocates will attend the Yacolt city council meeting tonight to present a new, compassionate solution to city leaders regarding problems caused by Quaker parrots who have made their nests on power transformers. Representatives from In Defense of Animals (IDA), NW Bird Rescue & Adoption Orphanage, Inc., Portland Audubon Society and other local advocates for birds will outline a plan of nest maintenance, including providing nesting platforms, which has been successful in other parts of the country dealing with similar feral parrot flocks.

WHEN:
Monday, January 7, 2008 (tonight) At 7:30 PM

WHERE:
Old Firehouse
105 East Yacolt Road
Yacolt , Wash.

"Quaker parrots are out of their element when kept as pets in people’s homes or living “wild” in the state of Washington . Ideally, these birds should be living freely in their native habitats,” said Matt Rossell, NW Outreach Coordinator for In Defense of Animals (IDA). "Now that there is a population of feral parrots here, it is our ethical obligation to intervene in the most humane way for both the birds and peoples' safety."

Other flocks of feral parrots have been appearing in communities across the country. The plan of action being proposed at tonight's meeting includes strategies that are working well in other communities to allow the parrots to stay free while mitigating human conflict they cause in a non-lethal way. The organizations will also propose long term solutions that will prevent the birds from breeding and increasing their populations.

"The real culprit here is the pet trade," according to Chris Driggins, president of NW Bird Rescue & Adoption Orphanage. "Exotic birds are socially complex, long-lived and have unique personalities and special needs. When they are bought and sold as pets, they often end up suffering in the hands of people ill-equipped to properly care for them."

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