{"id":123,"date":"2014-12-16T19:13:32","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T19:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carolynhasenfratzdesign.wordpress.com\/?p=123"},"modified":"2024-06-15T15:49:40","modified_gmt":"2024-06-15T15:49:40","slug":"a-plea-for-the-humane-treatment-of-wiggles-the-pet-starling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chasenfratz.com\/wp\/a-plea-for-the-humane-treatment-of-wiggles-the-pet-starling\/","title":{"rendered":"A plea for the humane treatment of Wiggles the pet starling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wiggles is a disabled human-raised pet starling that was
\nconfiscated by the government in the State of Pennsylvania. You can familiarize
\nyourself with the story here – https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wigglesthestarling\/info<\/a><\/p>\n

The owner\u2019s son has autism and the whole family has been
\ntraumatized by a government raid on their home.<\/p>\n

My contribution to the letter writing campaign in support of
\nWiggles is as follows:<\/p>\n

\u201cI am writing this letter in the hope that it will help the
\ncause of trying to reunite the tame starling Wiggles with his owner.<\/p>\n

I live with two rescued starlings. People found them both at
\nthe age of about five days old and raised them in captivity. Imprinting in
\nstarlings I understand starts at about the age of one week old. Both of my
\nstarlings see humans as their flock. Typically when it\u2019s time for their \u201cout\u201d
\ntime and the cage door is opened, they explode out of it and fly straight to
\nme. After spending some time with me they take their bath, explore the room a
\nbit and come back to me at intervals to visit. One or both birds usually ends
\nup napping on my arm or shoulder after they\u2019ve been out awhile. Although my
\nunderstanding is that it\u2019s not typical for starlings to enjoy being petted, my
\nstarling Pooky does like it when he\u2019s in certain moods.<\/p>\n

My two starlings are no more \u201cwild\u201d than any other pet bird
\nyou could have. They do everything other more common pet birds do \u2013 they play
\nwith toys, they play with their human, they learn to perform certain tasks on
\ncommand such as entering the cage when their out time is done and coming when
\ncalled, they talk with a vocabulary of dozens of words and phrases and
\nsometimes use human words in the correct context. Clearly they understand the
\nmeaning of some words I use with them, such as \u201cworms\u201d, \u201ccheese\u201d and \u201ccome
\nhere\u201d.<\/p>\n

My starlings like the company of most other humans and will
\nland on them and climb on them. They are even friendly to the vet and vet tech
\nwhen they get their annual checkups. Needless to say a wild starling would not
\ndo this and it\u2019s good that they don\u2019t because given the way many people feel
\nabout starlings that behavior would be likely to get them killed or abused
\ncruelly if they were turned loose outdoors. I do believe that they have a
\nspecial bond with the people who raised them even if they do like other humans.
\nMy Dad sometimes watches my starlings for me when I go out of town. From time
\nto time if I\u2019m away I\u2019ll call Dad and he\u2019ll put his phone on speakerphone so
\nthe birds can hear my voice. They tend to respond with an excited chirp when
\nthey hear it. Once when I came to pick them up, my other starling Attila did
\nback flips on her perch. It\u2019s hard to say what\u2019s going on in an animal\u2019s mind
\nbut it sure looked like excitement to me.<\/p>\n

Recently I went on a four day trip and when I went to get the
\nbirds they both got extra animated and started to sing and chatter. Dad said
\nthat was more chattering than they had done during the previous four days. I
\nlet them out for a time before I put them in their travel cage to take them
\nhome and Pooky snuggled under my chin and let me pet him for nearly an hour.
\nHis usual tolerance for this is about five minutes. I don\u2019t think Pooky would
\nhave behaved this way if he weren\u2019t glad to see me.<\/p>\n

It is rumored that a rehabber is currently caring for
\nWiggles. If true I hope the rehabber is kind to Wiggles. Even if that is so I
\nbelieve Wiggles would be a lot happier in his original home due to what I\u2019ve
\nobserved in my own birds\u2019 behavior and some things stated in the book \u201cHolistic
\nCare for Birds\u201d by David McCluggage, DVM and Pamela Leis Higdon, an author of
\nseveral books on bird care and training. On page 97 it states: \u201cIf you used to
\nwork part time but have taken a full-time job, your bird will become
\nemotionally stressed\u2026 If you develop a new relationship with someone the bird
\nwill feel neglected; they know you are diverting some of your love and time
\nfrom them.\u201d If those kinds of things can stress a bird, what kind of suffering
\nis it experiencing by being confiscated by strangers and taken to a strange
\nplace, possibly a succession of strange places, and being in the care of
\nunknown people who may not even like the bird or care what happens to it? There
\nare lots of people out there who hate starlings. The thought of our bird being
\nin the hands of such a person is the stuff of nightmares for starling owners
\n(literally I have had nightmares about this). In real life when I found my
\nfirst baby starling I posted on Facebook that I had found one and what advice
\npeople could give. A couple of ideas were \u201cdrown it\u201d or \u201cput it in a plastic
\nbag and tie it to the exhaust pipe of your car\u201d. Five years later that bird is
\nsitting on my forearm getting ready to take a nap by singing herself to sleep,
\nmurmuring such phrases as \u201cyou\u2019re sweet\u201d and \u201cI love you\u201d as I write this. I\u2019m
\nsure glad I didn\u2019t take any of that advice!<\/p>\n

How many times have we heard moving stories of dogs and cats
\ntraveling great distances and enduring hardships to find their lost owners? Are
\nstarlings less intelligent and have fewer emotional needs than these animals? I
\ndon\u2019t think so and I don\u2019t think any starling owner or expert on birds thinks
\nthat.<\/p>\n

The reason so many people have pet starlings is that unlike
\nnative birds, we fear with good reason that to turn them over to a rehabber
\ncould be a death sentence. I don\u2019t have two pet starlings because I desire to
\ntake wild birds out the wild. When I find a baby of a native species I take it
\nto a rehabber ASAP if I can\u2019t put it back in the nest. In the case of starlings
\nif we want the bird to live we have no option but to raise it ourselves or
\nadopt it out if we can\u2019t reunite it with the natural parents. Once we see what
\nit\u2019s like to live with a tame, human imprinted starling, even though it means
\nextra work many of us feel blessed to have such a close bond with a member of
\nanother species and we become passionate advocates for the humane treatment of
\nstarlings. I\u2019ve had pet parakeets before and I loved them very much but the
\nbond between them and me was not quite as close because I did not raise them
\nmyself. In my opinion it is cruel to torment Wiggles\u2019 owner with thoughts of
\nhow he\u2019s being treated. How would you feel if your close animal companion was
\nripped away from you and you weren\u2019t being allowed visitation or to even know
\nfor sure who had him and if he was suffering? I feel very fortunate that I live
\nin a state where I will never have the experience of having my starling family
\ntorn from me by the government. Once due to unfortunate life circumstances I was
\nseparated involuntarily from a pet turtle that I had raised from an egg
\nand I didn\u2019t know her fate for about 10 or so years. I eventually found out
\nthat the son of a veterinarian had adopted her. What a load off my mind that
\nwas. I had carried that grief and guilt for so many years and it was such a
\nrelief to be able to let it go because she was in good hands.<\/p>\n

In 2005 I was reading some accounts of the evacuation of the
\narea affected by Hurricane Katrina and I read of the mental torment of a woman
\nwho was not allowed to bring her pet along and it was presumed drowned or dead of neglect from being abandoned. I remember the woman was quoted as saying \u201cI hope she forgives me.\u201d I\u2019m crying
\njust thinking about it. Please don\u2019t inflict this kind of suffering on human
\nbeings for no rational reason. It\u2019s cruel and inhumane to both the human and
\nthe animal.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to address the issue of whether the confiscation of
\na pet starling makes any logical sense. It is understandable to not want to
\nencourage the import of invasive species into a state. However the \u201chorse is
\nout of the barn\u201d so to speak in the case of starlings. They were already far
\nbeyond their importation origin on the East coast by the 1920s and have been in
\nevery contiguous US state for many decades. Keeping a starling in captivity is
\nnot going to add to the wild population \u2013 rather it does the opposite by
\nremoving the bird from the wild breeding population. My understanding from what
\nI\u2019ve read on starlingtalk.com and other resources is that starlings are very
\ndifficult to breed in captivity. People who want to breed starlings on purpose
\nare few and far between and from what I\u2019ve read it\u2019s very difficult to do even
\nif you really work at it. My two starlings are male and female and have been
\nliving together for three years and I\u2019ve seen no evidence that the female wants
\nto breed with anyone and if the male wants to breed with anyone his preference
\nis me (judging by the fact that his singing and wing-waving are directed toward
\nme) since he\u2019s imprinted on humans! My understanding is that it\u2019s not unusual
\nfor pet birds to prefer their human as a potential mate. So there is not much
\ndanger of increasing the starling population that way. What is the intent of
\nthe law in Pennsylvania against having starlings as pets, if there is even such
\na law? Is it for the welfare of the bird? Clearly not, since it\u2019s apparently
\nlegal to slaughter them if you feel like it. Who does it benefit then? I think
\nPennsylvania needs to join the other 46 states and show common sense by
\nconsidering the starlings\u2019 special status and allowing them to be cared for in
\nloving homes. In Wiggles\u2019 case he is disabled and could not survive in the wild
\nanyway even if he was raised by other starlings and had a chance for a good
\nwild life. Human-imprinted starlings are not wild and do not know how to act
\nlike a wild bird and have a much better chance of a happy life in their own
\nhome with their own family.<\/p>\n

We would like to think that government officials who have the power of life and death over animals, whether wild or domestic, actually care about their welfare and not just about showing off how much power they have over us. Please give us hope that you actually care about the animal by reuniting Wiggles with the family who loves him and he\u2019s emotionally bonded with.<\/p>\n

Carolyn Hasenfratz<\/p>\n

Brentwood, Missouri\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wiggles is a disabled human-raised pet starling that was confiscated by the government in the State of Pennsylvania. You can familiarize yourself with the story here – https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wigglesthestarling\/info The owner\u2019s son has autism and the whole family has been traumatized by a government raid on their home. My contribution to the letter writing campaign in … Continue reading A plea for the humane treatment of Wiggles the pet starling<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3622,6],"tags":[77,182,183,204,2289,240,273],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chasenfratz.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chasenfratz.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chasenfratz.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chasenfratz.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chasenfratz.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.chasenfratz.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3736,"href":"http:\/\/www.chasenfratz.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions\/3736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chasenfratz.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chasenfratz.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chasenfratz.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}