Updates below
Yesterday, I received a series of anonymous emails, asking if I could offer any help to someone wishing to expose yet another latest incident of truly gross ineptitude inflicted on one of the poor birds trustingly placed into UKPR care.
I was sceptical at first of the authenticity of the email, but have tonight learned that the horrific details that I was given, were, almost unbelievably, true. A former member of UKPR staff, Adele, telephoned me this evening to relay the very same, sickening story and to tell me that she had been sacked for disclosing the information to another staff member.
We all know how UKPR like to brush these things under the carpet and hope no one will speak up, which is the exact reason this blog was started over six months ago!
I would like to offer my sincere apologies to 'bradley' for my doubts regarding the information provided in the email.
The story I have been given is not a nice one but here goes...
UKPR had in their care two rescue male Cockatoos, an LSC named 'Barney' and U2 named 'Coco'. These birds had presumably been handed over for rehoming and their former owners no doubt, trusted that UKPR would provide the best possible safe and happy homes for their pets.
As I am banned from the forum and unwilling to expose my computer to the Trojan threats that are rife on their site, I am unaware of the day to day goings on at UKPR but apparently, a 'behaviourist expert' named Wesley Flowers has been recently recruited, to offer advice on the boards to members.
For one reason or another, Coco and Barney were recently handed into the care of Wesley Flowers (allegedly, no homecheck or similar was carried out on this person and it would seem his credentials as an 'expert' were simply taken on his word perhaps?)
Wesley, in his infinite wisdom apparently decided to cage the two birds together (one of which had known aggression issues) A situation that Vikky tonight, defends on her forum, thus...
firstly with regards to barney we are all totally devastated to hear of barneys death,it was vey sad and a very avoidable situation,and there were certainly things that none of us knew anything about!!!!!!!!! like them sharing a cage,if we had of known,we would have told wes to seperate them!!
Well that's alright then!!
UKPR are responsible for the duty of care owed to birds given over to them for rehoming... ANYONE putting themselves up as a potential fosterer should be thoroughly vetted and their circumstances, experience, knowledge scrutinised BEFORE a bird is handed over, particularly in the case of notoriously, 'difficult' birds like Cockatoos.
What happened next was perhaps inevitable to anyone with any knowledge or experience of Cockatoos... The birds fought resulting in Barney receiving serious bite injury to his foot.
From what I have been told, a vet visit, ensued but Barney then self mutilated, chewing off his own foot and consequently, very tragically died, presumably from blood loss.
What a horribly painful, tragic, needless and premature end to a beautiful bird's life.
I can't begin to say how sickened and saddened I am by this latest news.
I just hope that poor Barney's death will not go unheeded and that this sham of a 'rescue' will be now be closed down for good and it's organisers recognised for the pack of greedy, ignorant, charlatans they are.
RIP Barney, Good night and God bless little one xxx
Update 28th September, 2009
The following statement from Wesley Flowers has been posted on the UKPR forum today...
Hi everyone
I would like to clear a few things up. I have an introduction to me in the behaviour section of the forum. As for hands on experience I have 13 years with a wide range of psittacids. My experience range from breeding, hand rearing, positive reinforcement training, bird training for educational displays, and training out ‘problem behaviours’. On the academia side, as you can read in the introduction to the behaviour section, I am studying towards a degree in animal behaviour of which I have already done the animal training module and achieved an ‘A’ grade (this isn’t bad considering I have been out of education for a number of years), for this my course work was done on parrots.
In the unfortunate event regarding the Cacatua alba and the Cacatua sulphurea (Coco and Barney), I can only offer the sincerest of apologies to those concerned, mainly Dave and his family. I would like to state from the start some of the UKPR staff and Dave knew of the intention of introducing the two aforementioned birds together, and I would like to state that no concerns were raised regarding this, (I did have some PM’s with this in but now they have been removed). The injuries sustained in the squabble were minor regarding both birds (basically bites to digits, and Barney sustained a bite to ankle), it was not until Barney was caught and placed in a darkened box to recuperate the real damage was done. On inspection to ascertain the severity of the injuries sustained by Barney the shock of finding him with a self mutilated foot spurred me to get him to a vet for emergence treatment. At the vets, he and I alike were hopeful of a full recovery after an operation to remove the remains of his foot. Unfortunately over night before the operation Barney had tried to mutilate his foot again subsequently sustaining a huge blood loss, and Coco now only a few days on has fully recovered.
As for administration and communication, I can say that I have kept Dave and my contacts in UKPR up to date regarding all the birds progress that I have here belonging to them. Dave has been kept up to date regarding this matter if not by me by Vikky.
I would like to put this unfortunate sequence of events down to miss judgement on my part, this happens from time to time when dealing with animals as they can have very unpredictable and surprising natures. I can say that I have learnt from the costly mistake. I would like to state that the two aforementioned birds were cohabiting for three weeks before the squabble of which I witnessed them mutual preening a number of times. They were not just chucked into the same cage, their behaviours and displays were observed post introduction. I would not have introduced them if at any time I had seen any defence displays from either bird. Observations were made on introduction, this was very interesting because no aggression or even territorial display was noted from the original cage proprietor. A pecking order was established quickly of which the Cacatua sulphurea was the more dominant, what could this suggest?
Kindest regards
Wes
WORDS FAIL ME........
Well that's alright then!!
UKPR are responsible for the duty of care owed to birds given over to them for rehoming... ANYONE putting themselves up as a potential fosterer should be thoroughly vetted and their circumstances, experience, knowledge scrutinised BEFORE a bird is handed over, particularly in the case of notoriously, 'difficult' birds like Cockatoos.
What happened next was perhaps inevitable to anyone with any knowledge or experience of Cockatoos... The birds fought resulting in Barney receiving serious bite injury to his foot.
From what I have been told, a vet visit, ensued but Barney then self mutilated, chewing off his own foot and consequently, very tragically died, presumably from blood loss.
What a horribly painful, tragic, needless and premature end to a beautiful bird's life.
I can't begin to say how sickened and saddened I am by this latest news.
I just hope that poor Barney's death will not go unheeded and that this sham of a 'rescue' will be now be closed down for good and it's organisers recognised for the pack of greedy, ignorant, charlatans they are.
RIP Barney, Good night and God bless little one xxx
Update 28th September, 2009
The following statement from Wesley Flowers has been posted on the UKPR forum today...
Hi everyone
I would like to clear a few things up. I have an introduction to me in the behaviour section of the forum. As for hands on experience I have 13 years with a wide range of psittacids. My experience range from breeding, hand rearing, positive reinforcement training, bird training for educational displays, and training out ‘problem behaviours’. On the academia side, as you can read in the introduction to the behaviour section, I am studying towards a degree in animal behaviour of which I have already done the animal training module and achieved an ‘A’ grade (this isn’t bad considering I have been out of education for a number of years), for this my course work was done on parrots.
In the unfortunate event regarding the Cacatua alba and the Cacatua sulphurea (Coco and Barney), I can only offer the sincerest of apologies to those concerned, mainly Dave and his family. I would like to state from the start some of the UKPR staff and Dave knew of the intention of introducing the two aforementioned birds together, and I would like to state that no concerns were raised regarding this, (I did have some PM’s with this in but now they have been removed). The injuries sustained in the squabble were minor regarding both birds (basically bites to digits, and Barney sustained a bite to ankle), it was not until Barney was caught and placed in a darkened box to recuperate the real damage was done. On inspection to ascertain the severity of the injuries sustained by Barney the shock of finding him with a self mutilated foot spurred me to get him to a vet for emergence treatment. At the vets, he and I alike were hopeful of a full recovery after an operation to remove the remains of his foot. Unfortunately over night before the operation Barney had tried to mutilate his foot again subsequently sustaining a huge blood loss, and Coco now only a few days on has fully recovered.
As for administration and communication, I can say that I have kept Dave and my contacts in UKPR up to date regarding all the birds progress that I have here belonging to them. Dave has been kept up to date regarding this matter if not by me by Vikky.
I would like to put this unfortunate sequence of events down to miss judgement on my part, this happens from time to time when dealing with animals as they can have very unpredictable and surprising natures. I can say that I have learnt from the costly mistake. I would like to state that the two aforementioned birds were cohabiting for three weeks before the squabble of which I witnessed them mutual preening a number of times. They were not just chucked into the same cage, their behaviours and displays were observed post introduction. I would not have introduced them if at any time I had seen any defence displays from either bird. Observations were made on introduction, this was very interesting because no aggression or even territorial display was noted from the original cage proprietor. A pecking order was established quickly of which the Cacatua sulphurea was the more dominant, what could this suggest?
Kindest regards
Wes
WORDS FAIL ME........
absolutely disgusting
ReplyDeleteThe poor bird needing consoling, why did Wesley put him in a darkened box??? Barney wasn't a wild bird, he was a companion parrot???
ReplyDeleteTo be left in box to chew off his own foot is disgusting.
And to put an Umbrella with a Lesser Sulphur???? Even without aggression problems I would say is a definate no no!!! Poor Barney couldn't have stood a chance.
I have been told Polly a white eyed conure I emergency cared for who went to a new forever home has now been put into a breeding programme as the bird is a rare species?
ReplyDeleteThis bird was a hand reared pet bird that craved human attention? Given to UKPR thinking this bird would have a loving forever home with a new human family.
Alan Hird - UKPR staff member has organised this.
Ah yes, that well renowned rescuer/"hobbyist breeder"/'big' man who likes to threaten people... Alan.h
ReplyDeleteNo surprise there then!
Less hope this sham of a rescue gets closed down, it's disgusting. Don't they also pass on cockatoos to Harry Sissens?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI have received the following email which I shall post here in the comments section. Thank you to the contributor...
ReplyDelete.......................................
this is about wesley at ukpr i am not a member of ukpr but after everything thats gone on i feel you may be able to make everyone see the truth
all i did was google him he loves spiders he resarches them , not parrots he dont even own parrots
• Wesley Flower is studying for a foundation degree in animal science (behaviour) at Cornwall College so it looks like these two birds we just a study to him to help him get the degree he needs but wot a sad loss to all of you bird lovers
Is this Wesley the same Wesley that is doing a day training course with GG from Parrot Link?
ReplyDeleteSeems very odd to me that GG would associate with such people. I doubt this will be posted because I do not want to reveal my ID.
From Wesley's comments on the UKPR forum it would appear it is the same person.
ReplyDeletewonder how much money the ukpr (vicki) got for putting the rare white eyed conure into a breeding program £££££
ReplyDeleteso much for no ukpr bird will get used for breeding
ReplyDeletethey should practice what they preach
Unbelievable ineptitude and ignorance from the infamous UKPR!
ReplyDeleteGod help any animal that finds its way to them and their band of yes men!
UKPR needs to be shut down!! The sooner the better!!!
ReplyDeleteit does need to be shut down now to much has gone on behind the scenes
ReplyDeleteit certainly has, i hope something is done very soon as this will continue to go on
ReplyDeleteOn trying to register on UKPR I get this message - "Sorry, registration has been disabled by the administrator"
ReplyDeleteHardly how a bona fide operation would handle things is it?
You are probably best advised to steer well clear of the UKPR forum as it has been infected with some very nasty Trojan viruses lately which will damage your computer.
ReplyDelete