I am having an extremely difficult time with this. I never buy anything from stores that sell animals. Read the email exchange below between me and Wayne (Bottlebrush perch creator).
I also have a huge problem with him putting up my email and Peppy's picture on his site. I don't want Peppy's picture up there!
I am going to ask him to take down the email and picture. I don't know what to do about buying a playstand. Any suggestions?
What would you do? Am I overreacting?
Thanks!

As for Wayne's ... you know I WOULD of said to go ahead and buy his gym UNTIL I read his e-mail/post on his site. IMO, he sounds very condescending to you. Also he could not be more wrong about the types of birds needing homes. Do SOME of them come w/ baggage? You betcha and WOW guess what it's all baggage humans have created! However MOST birds do NOT have baggage that a new person could not handle. Do you know what most people call baggage? Maturity! Guess what, all those cute little babies will eventually hit maturity ... and that is usually when the bird winds up in a rescue. that's like re-homing your kid because they hit puberty! Many birds are in rescues because of divorce, going to school and people simply decide they no longer have time for the bird. Because of buying birds from pet stores, that do not explain the truth behind living w/ mature parrots.

See buying from Wayne is different. He is not the CAUSE of baby birds. He is using an avenue to sell his products in which there are baby birds being sold, but he is not the one turning them out. I guess what I'm equating it too is ... I would NOT use a vet who was a breeder however I would use a vet that has clients that were breeders. My animals' health is too important and the vet is NOT the DIRECT result of the problem. Let's face it ... at this time in life it's going to be near impossible to not follow most trails and find a relation to something breeder related, even if you TRY. Like my store ... I try not to carry anything breeder related or from a breeder ... like feeding syringes, incubators, etc. but do I know 100% that NONE of my product comes from a breeder? No. One of the toy lines may ... I hope not but they may.

Another way to also sometimes look at things. If we can start showing these people that it's more profitable selling PRODUCT than birds you have a better chance of them doing it. I convinced a mom & pop store here that. I mean carrying animals COST money even if you don't vet them. Carrying inventory costs very little especially if you own your storage facility. So that is a way you can look at things. Show these places where the profit truly is .... product not the selling of souls.

What do you think of The Gabriel Foundation? Do you think they are a great place? Most people do. Did you know that they support breeders? Read their position statement on that page.

Quote:
Position Statement: The Gabriel Foundation is pleased to support responsible and ethical breeders who implement the very best standards of care for the needs of the psittacine and parrot-like birds raised and housed in their aviaries. They are dedicated to the environmental and psychological nurturance and enrichment of these birds’ lives, pursuing continuing education in the fields of aviculture, husbandry, behavior and veterinary care.Click here to read more


While I UNDERSTAND what they are saying, I do not agree. I do not see how you can sleep w/ the devil. I don't have a problem w/ rescues accepting money from breeders, heck I think breeders should have to PAY a portion of their profit to rescues. HOWEVER, I think that rescues should not have to promote a breeder in order to get the donations. I do not see how you can recognize the problem AND support it at the same time. To me it's kind of like those firemen that are arsons. Know what I mean?

Any way, i have rambled, I guess trying to keep my mind busy.

Back to Wayne. I would make him take down the e-mail and photos. If he does this, you will not be "hurting our cause" by buying from him. He is not a breeder. He may not have the same ideals as you, but he is not the cause of the problem. It will be very hard to live a normal life if we only associated w/ someone that had the same ideals/morals as we do in all areas of our life. So I make it a practice to avoid those that have a direct negative impact on my beliefs ... places that sell birds, breed OR promote breeders/breeding (such as Gab. Foundation).

OH, one more thing, I can't look again because his site is down at this moment and I didn't look to see the 1st time I went there. Does Wayne PROMOTE breeders on his site? If so THAT would give me the answer you are looking for. If he is PROMOTING breeders on his site ... then I would have to find a different kind of gym that my bird loves.

you will see how professional Wayne from WaynesParrotStuff.com is. my emails to him were courteous, don't you think? what i don't understand is why he would use my email and Peppy's picture without my permission. the original email i sent him was private.

Would you mind if I posted this on the board? I'll remove your name. I'd like to post this so ppl can see what kind of arrogant @$$hole Wayne is!! We may not be able to hurt his business nationally but at least the people who do not believe in breeding and buying will stop buying from him! I'd like to post it here and send out a myspace bulletin. What a JERK

Sure, you can post it. I am so disgusted by his response and his "tips" page.
I just can't believe that he talks about birds being pets, not children and pretty much says to give them minimal attention because when you dump them at a rescue they'll be less demanding. That's how I understand that "tip".
So disappointing that there are people out there who put on a facade and act like they love birds, just to make money from the suffering of birds.

Wayne,

I am very disappointed to find out that you are selling your perches through a distributor that sells birds. My rescued conure loves your perch (see attached photo) and I am ready to buy another one, but I just can't bring myself to purchase through anyone making money by selling birds. I am against the pet bird industry and browsing the available birds on the Golden Cockatoo Web site is disturbing. I am very, very sad. I was really looking forward to providing ****** with another one of your awesome perches.
Please get back to me and let me know if there is any alternative for me here.

Thanks!

**********




Hi

I've been thinking about your e-mail today and it was a topic I wanted to discuss in an article on my Ask Rio page. So, I wrote an article using your letter as an introduction. Here's a link.

**Link Removed **

Let me know what you think.

Wayne




Wayne,

Please remove my June 4, 2008 email and the photo of my parrot from your Web site.

Breeding birds and selling the babies to be kept in captivity is wrong. Even the most well intentioned person cannot provide for their physical and behavioral needs. Of course the birds that are currently in captivity need to be taken care of to the best of our ability, but more birds should not be bred. Birds should not be sold; I don't care if it's a big chain store or a "mom and pop" store selling the birds.

Not working with chain stores is a step in the right direction. You would be admired by many if you took a bigger step and made the decision to not work with stores that sell animals.

Thank you.
**********


****Wayne's response was no response instead a demeaning post made on his public site because of the member's beliefs. ***** M2mom

On Wayne's Ask Rio page:
6/16/08 update. I got an e-mail from this person demanding I remove her letter from this page, I complied. Basically, she is completely intolerant of anyone who has an opinion different then hers, and told me basically I should shut down my business because she doesn't believe in selling parrots and I shouldn't do business with people who buy/sell parrots. These kinds of people scare me. Where does it end? This kind of intolerance is a cancer on our society and I feel sorry for her and her bird. Now, she's going to deprive her new bird of one of my gyms (her current bird loves his Bottlebrush gym and she wanted to buy another one for her new bird but refuses to buy from my distributor because they sell birds.) Wow, that's really dumb.