My Personal encounter with UKPR

This post has been written in the interest of the present welfare and future well being of a Military Macaw Parrot named Mylo who is now in my care after coming from the UK Parrot Rescue forum. He was supposed to arrive Saturday evening (28/01/09) with his long term bonded partner JJ, but they were split up en-route by the ineptitude of UKPR workers.

Also this is my personal first hand account of witnessing the dodgy activities, that border on criminality, of the UK Parrot Rescue service.

If we as humans do not defend the rights of vulnerable pet birds then who will?

Updated with Freebirds account at the bottom of page (03/03/09)

The story behind JJ and Mylo the Macaws starts with their custody being signed over to the founder of the UKPR forum by the RSPCA after their previous owner was sent to prison. Both birds then ended up on the open website forum, which has seen their short life story being played out for all site members to follow.

It starts with JJ and Mylo being taken on an ‘emergency care’ basis by a UKPR worker called Adele, who homed the pair with herself for the past 6 months. Their progress throughout has been followed with keen interest by a large section of the forum members as can be viewed on the thread which has now been removed by the site administrators.

A month or so ago, Adele posted on the forum that she could no longer care for JJ and Mylo because she had developed ‘allergic allevioitis’ which is a serious allergy to birds. She stated that she now needed to re-home her own 2 African Greys plus 2 rescue African Greys and asked if I could take the two Macaws into my care, to which I agreed.

At the time it was a unanimous consensus amongst forum members that my home would be the perfect place for the pair considering I have extensive experience rescuing and caring for parrots including the larger species, and fully confident with boisterous Macaws.

That unanimous consensus soon changed on Sunday morning though. Not even 12 hours after Mylo arrived into my care… Because I posed some awkward questions concerning the present and future welfare of Mylo and his bonded companion JJ, who was supposedly coming to me the following weekend after their transportation debacle. (detailed below)

The UKPR website mood changed towards me amongst the administrators of the site after questions were posed in the open forum about the cage that was supposed to be coming to me with the two birds. ( A cage had been kindly donated for JJ and Mylo to have a permanant home by a kind hearted bird lover, which can be seen here, and here, in their profile.)

That being the case about the cage for JJ and Mylo, and it being me who was taking the pair into my care, it seemed only right that they should come to me with their cage so that they could become acclimatised to their new home, ready for when and if they left me to go to their permanent foster family.

Unbeknown to everyone following JJ and Mylo’s story, it had been decided by UKPR that Adele, the previous carer of Mylo, who stated in the open forum that she needed to rehome most of her birds, could have the donated Pallace cage for her own two Macaws and give one of her old smaller cages to JJ and Mylo.

I don’t know if it is just me who thinks this, but there is something wrong there in my eyes?

I questioned in the open forum about whether or not JJ and Mylo would be getting their Pallace cage as stated on their profile, and because of this, Vikky the UKPR administrator demanded Mylo back, with threats of sending men to my family home to collect him, which was flatly rejected.

The story Vikky then suddenly gave was that JJ the Macaw who was supposed to arrive with Mylo, was pining for Mylo and that Adele was now going to be fostering the pair.

It was at this point that the decision was made that Mylo would not be going anywhere. As someone passionate about parrot welfare, the wellbeing of any bird in my care is my number one priority and if I think or feel that for any reason that welfare is going to be harmed in anyway then I will take whatever action is necessary to prevent that happening.

To me, it was perfectly apparent that Mylo was not being returned to Adele for his or JJ’s well being, he was being asked to be returned because I had the audacity to question the issue of the donated Pallace cage that was destined for the pair.

Here follows my reasoning behind believing why Mylo should not go back to the emergency care from where he came, and why I have stated on the forum that if UKPR want to take possession of Mylo then they will have to get the Police or RSPCA involved, as they now are.

In Adele’s own words, she is not confident handling JJ and Mylo as a pair of big Macaws. In the 6 months that she had the pair she has only handled Mylo 3 or 4 times.. He hadn’t even been in my house 10 minutes before he was picked up, petted and stroked as can be confirmed by the UKPR driver who was himself scared to handle Mylo but witnessed the instant love and attention Mylo received here. Since being here for a couple days, he has not left my partner’s side and he follows him around or takes a taxi on his arm or shoulder. You have to ask yourself in this instance; what is best for the bird? Living with a carer scared to handle him, or allowed to spend time and bond with carers who are not scared to handle him so are able to give him the love and attention he needs and deserves after all he has been through?

The reason for Adele handing back JJ and Mylo to UKPR for rehoming was due to the fact that she has been diagnosed with ‘allergic allevioitis’. The question is; what has changed about this fact of a serious bird allergy for her to want Mylo back all of a sudden, and to hold onto JJ rather than deliver him to be with his bonded partner next weekend as arranged?

One minute these two birds going to the best possible home due to the fact of being diagnosed with ‘allergic allevioitis’, to them being demanded back. Bit strange don’t you think?

The thread that has been removed from UKPR contains all of the facts concerning why Vikky demanded Mylo back and can be verified as a part of any potential investigation into the conduct of UKPR. All those members who witnessed yesterday’s proceedings before the thread was removed know exactly why Mylo was demanded back with no consideration of the welfare of Mylo.

From my position, the only reason Mylo was suddenly demanded back was because I questioned the cage issue as per the foster profile.

JJ and Mylo were supposed to arrive with me almost a month ago now, it says on their fostering profile that they will be arriving microchipped and chlamyidia tested, these are parts of his fostering agreement along with the cage of course.

Mylo: Fostering profile

Adele who is a worker for UKPR has had Mylo for 6 months would appear to have not bothered taking Mylo to be microchipped ready for him to be rehomed, or for his veterinary inspection as per fostering profile. (This conduct from a parrot ‘rescue’ service that professes to provide all round care and rehoming for much loved pets of owners who are no longer able to keep their beloved animals.)

When Mylo did arrive on Saturday evening he arrived alone without his partner JJ, along with no cage, no microchip, and no evidence of any veterinary testing.

Do you see the pattern emerging?

Stick with this blog because there is so much more to come.

Half an hour before Mylo arrived on Saturday evening with his UKPR driver I contacted Adele, and only then, learnt that his partner JJ was not with him. The reason for this was that they had started fighting with each other resulting in JJ receiving a nasty foot wound leaving him unable to travel. I was then told that he would be coming next weekend along with one of Adele’s old cages.

Picture this: The UKPR driver, on his own admission does not go near big birds, and Adele on her own admission is scared of handling Mylo. As those who read the thread that has been removed will know, Adele was in a rush that day to get to Manchester. Add this to the backdrop of the two of them trying to catch these two big Macaws (one of them boisterous), and then placing them together in one small dog crate so as to be able to transport them on a three hour journey across the country.

Does this sound like a very professional Parrot Rescue Service who people are donating birds, peripherals and money too?

‘mick-sue-fisher’ who has vast experience of transporting rescue birds around the country, has himself, stated that to move two Macaws in the one small dog cage is sheer stupidity, with it quite obvious that they would end up fighting, with the potential of one of the birds killing the other.

Thankfully this time the injury was not too serious, but the bonded birds were then forced to be separated because there was no other crates or cages to move them separately.

So any UKPR members reading this; who forced these two birds to be separated?

Once things settled down and we were able to spend some quality time with Mylo it became strikingly clear that he had been living in a smokers’ house because he absolutely reeked of stale cigarette smoke. Two days on and several water sprays later, he still smells of it. This rather suggests he has been living in this ‘emergency care’ home environment for the past 6 months.

If you read UKPR’s fostering agreement it states that the bird you are fostering must not be kept in a smoky environment, and here you have Mylo staying with a UKPR worker and living in her smoky environment which breaches their own UKPR rules.

What does this say?

Anybody who keeps birds knows that it is not good practice to keep birds in a smoky environment and there is no way any rescue organisations should allow rescued birds to stay in this type of environment. I should think that that is a common consensus amongst all rescue/bird lovers.

Once Vikky demanded Mylo back, Adele then stated that she would be putting the Pallace cage in question, together and turning her spare bedroom into a bird room. This is the exact same room she had previously stated on the forum was unsuitable for them. If Mylo had arrived with at least ‘a’ cage then this situation would never have blown up into the position it is now, but Adele had over a month to sort out the cages for JJ and Mylo but did nothing which is why I had no alternative but to question things.

Then look what happened!

If all that has happened so far was not bad enough, then this is the thing that tops everything off….

Last night Mylo was sitting on the end of my bed and I was very alarmed to notice him wheezing, sneezing and having considerable trouble breathing. There was copious amounts of a clear discharge running from his nares and dripping from the end of his beak, with him looking very poorly.

I decided I had no alternative but to email Vikky and let her know that Mylo had arrived with me in poor health, and enquire to any information she might provide so as to assist my vet in treating the poor little guy.

I then received this email back from Vikky where she states that she knew he was ill, that he had been ill since UKPR took possession of him, and that the RSPCA and the vet had told her that they didn’t know what it was.

Can you imagine going to the Doctor sick and him telling you that he doesn’t know what it is, and not running tests to find out exactly what the condition is so as to be able to clear it up?

It wouldn’t happen would it, so why should those who put themselves up as bird rescuers not take responsibility of taking care of the birds in their charge?

Mylo was with Adele who is a UKPR worker for 6 months with this exact condition and she did absolutely nothing with him to find out what this condition is and have it cleared up.

Instead it has been left to me today to book Mylo into my vets to find out what this condition is, and contact the RSPCA about his plight.

The vet is of the opinion that the most likely diagnosis is nasal aspergillosis and has given me swabs to harvest samples for analysis.

If you as a human who is involved in the rescue of vulnerable birds from uncaring humans and had just experienced all of this, would you want to send a poor bird that has just arrived into your care back into the situation he has just come from?

I certainly wouldn’t and is the reason why we are all now in this position, defending the rights of Mylo the Military Macaw, asking for the RSPCA to investigate JJ his bonded partner, and calling into question UKPR for any other vulnerable birds that have been placed in their care..

There is so much more to this one story concerning myself please come back tomorrow night to read about the story concerning my little green singing finch, which just makes the plot thicken. If you are shocked after reading about JJ and Mylo then wait till you read the rest.

Not only this, but during our course of dealings with UKPR we have personally witnessed another sad tale of a beautiful little UKPR rescue bird that has its own shocking story that is soon to become a breeding bird.

All I can say is not if we can help it, and when I say we I mean all those who agree and support this blog, because together we can make a difference for the sake of defenceless and vulnerable birds.

UPDATE (03/03/09)

Courtesy of Freebird.

I was an ACO for UKPR, I joined in April 07, was an ACO from August O7, and asked to stand down as ACO in October then banned in November 07.

I was given hardly any information of what to expect when becoming an ACO, a little shocked when I got into the office section of the forum. How new and old members were being ripped to pieces behind the scenes.

Whilst I was an ACO with them, I spent many hours helping advertise UKPR. Giving advice to people on the phone, picking up birds and also emergency caring birds.

In this short time I was with them it became more and more apparent that a birds welfare was not given top priority. The last straw being when they bullied a child on the open forum, things behind the scenes got extremely unpleasant. I am not a mini me and without being rude will state what I think is right, which obviously alienated me from the rest of the team.

I knew things were never that professionally run, but being a young rescue I hoped things would improve all the time. Where I thought I could make a difference I soon found out anyone with a little knowledge would not last.

Vikky even told me over the phone before she asked me to step down as an ACO “If all my staff did as much as you my life would be so much easier” I rest my case.

I finally got banned for supporting one of the emergency carers in my area who has Oscar the Amazon. Vikky wanted to move him into an unsuitable home, so I tried asking relevant questions under another identity as I knew I would get banned, even though these questions were perfectly relevant? Then sadly the emergency carer was banned too, for having the birds welfare as her top priority. She was abused by Vikky and publicly called a liar on the open forum by Vikky, which Vikky has now deleted surprisingly, her normal practice. Funny I got the blame for turning this e/c person against Vikky, she could not see that publicly humiliating a person might be the cause???

I am just so happy Vikky asked me to stand down when she did, a lot more things became apparent after I left and I certainly do not want to be associated in any way with any of there dodgy dealings. They also hide the fact most of them were breeders too, and had buried any threads about this extremely well into the site so people wouldn’t find them easily and read them.