The Parrots’ Umbrella

10/13/2026

We know better. We must do better.

OPINION SUNDAY: We need to have a conversation about the bowl, again.

Why, when we know that an all-seed diet is not considered an appropriate nutritional foundation for companion parrots, are we still feeding it as though knowing better and doing better are somehow the same thing?

And let's define “all-seed diet.”

We mean a diet that is essentially all seed, whether it is mixed with dried vegetables, fruits, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, etc., AND a diet that is technically “seed and pellets” when the bird simply eats the seed and leaves the pellets behind.

Seed AND pellets.

“See? I'm giving them a balanced diet.”
Are you, though?

Because if the bird eats the seed and leaves the pellets behind, we aren't feeding a seed-and-pellet diet.
We are feeding seed.

And this is where we need to stop kidding ourselves.
Putting the food we WANT a bird to eat into the bowl does not mean the bird is actually eating it.

We cannot look at a bowl at the end of the day, see uneaten pellets, and say, “Well, they had the option.”

The bird doesn't eat options.
The bird eats food.
And if the same food is consistently being selected while the other food is consistently being discarded, that is information.
Important information.

It doesn't mean we should suddenly remove everything a bird enjoys or force a dietary change overnight.
It means we should PAY ATTENTION.
What is this bird actually consuming?
Are we measuring their weight and body condition?
Are we watching their health?
Are we working with an avian veterinarian when medical conditions affect nutritional needs?

And most importantly: if what we're doing isn't working, are we willing to change it?

Because “my bird won't eat anything else” should not be the end of the conversation.
It should be the beginning of one.

We owe our birds more than putting the right things in the bowl.
We owe them the effort to make sure the right things are actually making it into the bird.
That's the "thinking" part.

Seed may have a legitimate place in some parrots' diets. But satellite food is not the same thing as nutritional foundation.

We know more now.
So what is the excuse?

10/04/2026

This is a conversation we all are having. If you aren’t having it, you’re probably part of the problem.

How Much Longer?

I read another article about animals being failed by the systems that are supposed to protect them. Opinion Sunday:

I found myself asking a question I keep coming back to:
How much longer are we going to accept the same outdated approaches to keeping animals safe?
Not thriving.
Not living their best lives.
Safe.
Because sometimes we can't even seem to get there.

We see a horse working in the Georgia heat. People say, “How enchanting.” Then we see the image of that horse lying on pavement after a long day and evening.

We see laws intended to prevent the roadside and transient sale of puppies and kittens, while animals continue to change hands in ways that make those laws difficult to enforce. All out of the back of an SUV.

We see counties try to address problems locally, only to run into limitations imposed by state law.

We see animal cruelty cases that finally result in intervention after animals have already suffered terribly.

And we see shelters and rescues drowning in the consequences.

These aren't new problems.
That's what bothers me.
We have known for decades that animals suffer when breeding exceeds demand.
We know what happens when animals are sold without adequate oversight.
We know what happens when animals are kept in extreme heat, without appropriate shelter, food, water, or veterinary care.
We know what happens when enforcement depends upon someone noticing, reporting, and proving that something has gone wrong.

We know.

We will always remember the DeKalb hoarding case involving approximately 400 parrots, with only about 300 surviving.

And yet we keep building systems around reacting to suffering rather than preventing predictable suffering in the first place.

Georgia isn't uniquely responsible for this.
Look at New York. Look at Florida. Look across the country.
Different laws. Different regulations. Different political environments.

And still we have staggering numbers of homeless, abandoned, neglected, and dead companion animals.

At some point, we have to stop congratulating ourselves because we have a law on the books.

A law is not the finish line.
A permit is not proof of humane treatment.
A license is not proof of good care.
An inspection is not proof that an animal is safe tomorrow.
And waiting until an animal is visibly suffering before we intervene is not a prevention strategy.
It is a failure of prevention.

We ask the public to become better caregivers. We tell people to research before acquiring an animal. We tell them to understand nutrition, behavior, veterinary needs, and environmental safety.

We tell them to do better.
And they should.

But what are our institutions telling them?
What does it teach the public when an activity remains permitted despite predictable risks?
What does it teach people when animals can continue to be sold through loopholes?
What does it teach people when enforcement repeatedly comes after suffering rather than before it?
And what does it say about us when the number of animals needing rescue continues to grow while we argue about how much protection is enough?

At Papayago Rescue House, we spend an enormous amount of time trying to move people beyond “safe.”
Because safe is only the beginning.
We want caregivers to understand the animal's biology.
To recognize stress before it becomes a crisis.
To understand nutrition before disease develops.
To recognize environmental hazards before exposure causes harm.
To understand behavior before a bite becomes the reason a parrot is surrendered.
To think about welfare before suffering forces the conversation.

That is the kind of progression I want to see everywhere.
Not another patch.
Not another loophole.
Not another law that looks good on paper while we continue cleaning up the consequences.

The dawn of a new day in animal protection should mean that we stop asking how little protection an animal can survive under and start asking what we can reasonably do to prevent suffering before it happens.

Because if we don't change the way we think about animal protection, what happens?

Do we simply stew in the same lack of progression while shelters fill, rescues struggle, animals are abandoned, animals are neglected, and animals die?

How much longer?
And who—or what—will finally decide that enough is enough?

10/03/2026

If you haven’t seen the undercover video, steel yourself. Watch it. Send it to everyone. Send it to Petco and Petsmart.
This needs to see the light.

Dame Judi Dench has a message for Petco: STOP selling birds!

Shaken by PETA’s horrifying undercover investigation of a bird breeder in Petco's supply chain, where we exposed staff violently ripping birds’ heads off & crushing their necks, the actor & guardian to Sweetie the bird wrote a letter urging Petco’s CEO to face the horror & end bird sales NOW.

09/15/2026

PSA: If your bird/s get outside
GO LOOK FOR THEM.
Post on Lost and Found Pets and neighborhood pages.
Look for Found Birds.
Call all shelters and vets.
Make flyers.

The number of birds outside this year is more than we have ever encountered. It’s insane, and 1% of the ones found are ever claimed, because people DON’T LOOK FOR THEM.

If people don’t even bother to look for them, we can only assume they were thrown outside purposefully. FYI: that is a crime.

09/05/2026

There is no room.

The enormous volume of unwanted parrots being fielded by the rescue community indicates an epidemic failure of parrots as pets. But whose failure is it, really? We as humans have done everything in our power to manipulate parrots and to alter and change them to fit better into our lives. Clip their wings and confine them to cages... Remove them from their families and from their flocks and instead try to fit them into ours... Reject their language and expect them to recite our words... Genetically alter their colors and the contours of their feathers to create designer birds... We render them utterly dependent upon us and then, when we find we cannot entirely eradicate the true nature of the animal, we abandon them. Some of these parrots will find their way to a sanctuary or rescue organization. Millions will not.

Photo 📸: