Yesterday hundreds of parrots were rescued and transfered to the Limbe Wildlife Centre. They were confiscated at the Douala Airport, where they were kept prior to shipment out of the country. The illegal animal dealer has fled. The parrots were sitting in 10 crates, covered with lice, without food or water. By the time they arrived in the LWC 7 animals were dead and 4 more died soon after arrival.
Fortunately we had space in the quarantine, so we quickly prepared an enclosure for them. Our carpenter rushed to the market to get perches and find saw dust for on the floor. Some others went to buy corn, casava, peanuts and palmnuts in order to prepare the food. In no time the ape quarantine enclosure was changed into a flight cage for parrots. The parrots were off loaded and less then 2 hours after arrival they were confortably settling down in their new temporary home.
The horror of shipments like this is most visible when the strong birds have flown out of the transport cages, leaving the weak ones behind.
This makes me very angry with the people who do this. On the other hand, I want to focus on all those parrots whose lives are now saved. They will get all the care they need and most of them will be released back into the wild. From earlier experience I know that we will have months ahead of us with a lot of extra work, but that is okay. The Limbe Wildlife Centre has a bunch of great animal keepers, who will do everything to rehabilitate these parrots and let them fly in the forest again. We will keep you informed about the developments.
Best wishes,
Simone
Donations made here are
Feb 8th Matthew T USD 32.00
24 Comments
Thankyou Limbe for providing a lifeline to these magnificent African Grey Parrots. Perhaps the World Parrot Trust may be able to help if you let them know.
We are already in contact with the World Parrot Trust. They have been great supporters in the last two years!
Hi there. Brenton Head (your first commenter) just emailed me about this terrible story. I can’t offer direct funding I’m afraid, but I’m one of three writers on the blog 10,000 Birds. We average around 2000 visitors a day and have run many articles on parrot welfare and parrot conservation: I’d really like to highlight the work you’re doing and this confiscation of Greys on the blog. If that would be of use I could either write the article myself (could you let me have more data and images?) or you could write it as guest post. We would of course add an appeal for anyone interested to donate to help your work.
Regards
Charlie
It’s a miracle more didn’t die. Thank you for giving them care and allowing them to be free again. What gorgeous birds!
I wonder where they were going to be shipped to? It should be illegal to keep these birds as pets in any country.
It is such a tragedy that some people think it is their right to keep a wild bird in a cage rather than let it live its natural life!
Well done on their rescue. Unbelievable that this happens.
Good luck Simone, and thank you for the wonderful work you are doing! At least it looks like they aren’t covered in glue this time! Best wishes.
That these magnificent & intelligent birds end up in cages in suburban homes after their horrific capture & transport – a catalogue of ill-treatment-is testament to the stupidity & greed of us all.
They should be flying wild in the forests where they belong.
No birds should EVER be caged.
Shame, humans!!!
Thank you for the speedy work done to help these birds. From the photos it is obvious that many, if not most are juveniles under a year of age (black eyes.)
You are doing fine work!
Sybil Erden, Executive Director
The Oasis Sanctuary
Arizona, USA
Onbegrijpelijk dat er luchtvaartmaatschappijen zijn die dit soort vrachten nog accepteren. Wie weet hoe lang deze papegaaien al in kratten zaten en welke lange reis hen nog te wachten stond. Complimenten voor de scherpe douanecontrole op het vliegveld Douala. Dit is niet de eerste keer dat er zoveel dieren in beslag zijn genomen. Laat ons hopen dat het de laatste keer is en dat de handelaren eindelijk wakker worden. Wat geweldig dat het team van LWC zich zo enorm inzet voor de opvang van dieren in nood. Dank aan jullie allen.
Amazing job you are doing, Limbe! These are extremely intelligent and beuatiful birds that did not deserve to
be captured and treated badly by greedy exporters. Hope the perpetrator is found and persucuted to the full extent of law.
I’m both horrified and sickened by what I’ve just read, and seen. I hope with all my heart that the morons responsible for this are caught, and given the same treatment they gave these poor, beautiful Greys. God Bless You for being there for them, and taking care of them. I too, have a parrot sanctuary and just when I think “I’ve seen it all”, something this devastating is posted.
BRAVO!
Thank you so much on caring for all of the Greys.. I myself love greys and Have 4 of then and one is a 33yrs grey. I wish he could go back by he can not.. All of the greys I wish can be return back to the place they came from.. And I hope they never have to go thou this again.. God Bless you all for caring about the and God Bless the Greys in there save return back home.. Margaret and Jojo The Grey..
Thank for all of your efforts to help these birds. Looking at their eye, they almost all appear to be youngsters. Probably easiest to catch. Sadly, there will be more. Thank you for helping them.
Thank goodness that these babies were rescued. What a horrible way for them to have to live. I can only imagine what their fate would have been. Thank you for all of the animail (bird) lovers all over the world! I worry that these people(and I use that term loosely)will do this again. They will be free of danger now.
I applaud your efforts to rescue and return them to the wild. There are enough African grey parrots already in captivity everywhere on the planet (and they breed well in captivity) so that NONE should ever be wild caught again, none should ever leave their home in nature for a cage. Granted we allowed it to happen (export of parrots) years ago but times have changed. I can understand pet parrots (they dont know what they are missing) but to catch a wild bird and cage it is a kin to slavery and should be stopped world wild.
Being a small time rescue in Maine, myself, I so understand where you are coming from. Because my staff here is only myself I am limited to around 100 birds at a time, but I think its amazing what you are doing for these wild caught birds. I currently have birds that were kept for too long in captivity and can never be returned to the wild, however they are NEVER caged. I have 4 indoor rooms and 2 outdoor flights where they will live out their natural lives in peace and the comfort of their own kind. Way to go guys! You rock! Beth
I wonder if these parrots were on their way to pet stores or breeders. It really sickens me what humans will do for money. The guy gets away, and even if he was caught he wouldn’t be punished as severely as he should be. That’s why they continue to do these horrible things. I’ve seen first hand how law enforcement DOESN’T work on humans who hurt and exploit parrots. It’s really hard for me to like or trust the human race anymore.
You are doing something that not many will. Not many have the courage or the understanding that all living beings have equal share of the earth. The pic of the African parrots is so moving. Those heavenly creatures in such shape!!! I don’t know whether I will be of any help but I pledge my support for the cause of animals because I love them, after all they too live like us…..as a family.
Just curious why my comment was taken off your sight about the plight of the poor African Grey’s that were stolen out of the wild?
While most of these birds look young, as Sybil says, I cannot imagine the horror in the minds of older birds either. I am sure that the high suvival rate in this case was due to your extremely fast work in the rescue,
Thank you for saving these beautiful intelligent creatures. Shame on the person who ignorantly stole from nature and our world. My goodness, people don’t steal the sweet penguins, why must there be a continual struggle with leaving our parrots in their natural habitat? Don’t they deserve to live in this world alongside the rest of our endangered species? No one is going to buy these birds. They end up being cooped up and dying from all the abuse thrust upon them. Furthermore, what happens when we have no more african greys or other parrots for that matter? It is one thing to buy a pet grey legally and totally different thing stealing from nature. Please continue your efforts to stop this mass murder. Thank you again for what you have done. You do have quite the task on hand but you will learn from the parrots what they need. Leslie
We have so many parrots in the USA that are suffering as a result of the human hand. We must join forces and stop the importation and breeding of these species.
Thank you for all you have done and all that you are doing today, tomorrow, and for the future. You all are true Angels.
Don’t Buy, ADOPT!!!
One Trackback
[...] Greys confiscated have any of you seen this? thought I’d share….. Massive confiscation of grey parrots | Limbe Wildlife Centre [...]