Last Saturday, I sat with my Oxyfresh at a table at a local bird fair. I
wouldn't have even gone, being somewhat ill at the time, except I'd paid
for the table in advance 6 months ago, and really couldn't afford to
lose the table $$. Now I kind of wish I hadn't gone at all. I came home
THOROUGHLY disgusted with the human race. The idiocy surrounding me was
painful to witness.
To my right, was a couple selling young cockatiels. VERY young. A couple
dozen of them. Feathered, but still unweaned. Pearls, mostly. They were
sexing the birds with a wedding ring dangled off a chain, and claiming
to potential buyers that it's "100% guaranteed that this bird is ____
gender". After about 5 hours of this, I could stand no more. I mentioned
to the man that I had once sexed my sleeping husband with this method,
and if it's 100% accurate, I married a well-disguised woman. He got
quite indignant, and replied that his wife had sexed her brother, and he
was male, so he knew it worked. (!)
Behind me was an older couple selling a red-rumped parakeet and a
Sun-Jenday cross. They kept calling the hybrid a Sunday conure (there IS
no such species, and I hate it when people try to dignify hybrids with
"proper" names). Their reason for selling the conure was that "they
can't afford to buy him a mate, and no bird should be without a mate in
this day of endangered species". Fortunately, nobody bought the bird,
and they took it home again. Probably will see them again at the next
show, I'd bet.
Directly across from me was another older couple selling VERY YOUNG
baby Sun conures. Less than a week old, eyes not even open yet. I know
that they sent at least one of them home in a cardboard box with new
owners. They were NOT selling handfeeding formula or syringes to
accompany the babies. They also had some unweaned Senegals, one mostly
feathered, two mostly naked. They sold the oldest one, who was still
barely mobile and on at least 4 feedings a day. Again, no supplies
accompanied the baby when it left them.
No less than FIVE birds got loose in the fair hall, and flew around
panicked for hours before being caught or escaping to who knows where
(there were 6 doors into the hall, and at least one was open at any
given time).
I swear, some people came and got tables just to show off their pet
birds--they weren't selling anything, they just wanted the general
public to pet their birds. All I could think was "Why??? Don't they pay
enough attention to the birds at home? They have to rent a table to get
people to pet their cockatoos? Isn't there enough illness in their
house? They have to bring their birds to a crowded fair and wait for
somebody to pass along a virus or two?"
In this day of several incurable avian diseases running rampant (and
even polyoma is epidemic in Michigan right now, according to what I
heard at the fair), I simply could not believe that people would bring
ANY bird out, let alone tiny babies, and pets who didn't need to be
exposed to such risks.
I could only wonder how many hours those precious wee Sun conures will
last in the hands of their inexperienced new handfeeders. I again
questioned why someone would promote breeding hybrids of any kind. And I
really wondered how many of those "guaranteed female" pearl cockatiels
will lose their spots at first molt.
I went home, bleached my clothing and took a long hot shower with my
Oxyfresh to wash off the cooties. But I fear that the stupidity cooties
I SAW will stay with me forever.
--Kathy
 * SLMR 2.1a * Boat drinks, the boys in the band ordered boat drinks...
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