Dear Parrots magazine,
Unhappy with what we saw
It was about a year ago when I decide to get a Senegal Parrot, as my parents had kept them for many years. So I looked in the bird press and eventually found a man who claimed he had bred Senegals, and had some really nice babies. So, with my husband, we started on the journey to this man’s house, which was about an hour way, but we decided to go this distance as he sounded so genuine.
When we arrived, we immediately became suspicious, as his house was in a really dilapidated area of a housing estate with bags of rubbish and old household appliances in the front garden. We thought we had mad a mistake by coming here, but because of all the effort we had gone to, thought we might as well knock on the door and see what this was all about.
The man quickly came to the door and once opened, an awful smell was apparent. We could see in the hallway that there were all sorts of rubbish and odd bits lying around, and the atmosphere was quite unpleasant. Undaunted, we went inside to see what horrors we may be confronted with, and we weren’t disappointed. There were many cages in this man’s lounge and dining area, which were dirty and very untidy. He had some Senegals and a few budgies in them.
It was strange that the birds all looked in fairly good condition and quite perky, but we were not at all happy with what we saw, so made comments that the birds he had there, were not what we were looking for. As a result we made a hasty retreat and left. But although this chap was very pleasant to us and the birds did look OK, we were not at all confident.
All I want to say is that don’t be taken in by what you hear on the phone, you must go and see and don’t be afraid to walk away.
Robert Hall - by email