Kindness is the best thing you can offer a bird in need…
By Abi Strachan
It doesn’t happen often, thankfully, but occasionally we do take a bird in that is just beyond help. We never make decisions in haste, and every single case is consulted on by the entire team, as well as our arsenal of experts.
Rescue work is hard, and naturally you want the very best for every single creature. Sometimes the best you can offer is peace, and freedom from suffering. It’s is vitally important to remain objective, and remember why you are doing this work. We do it for the benefit of the birds. Which means that even when it breaks our hearts, we need to do what is best for the bird.
Recently, we had a case involving a 5 week old baby eclectus parrot. Likely due to inbreeding, she was severely deformed. What we were initially told was a blind bird, turned out to be a bird deprived of all senses, with a beak deformity that extended into both her mouth and sinuses, a misformed skull, leaving a hole in the front, and a feeding issue which she was to weak to have properly diagnosed. All this on top of her being half the size she should have been. She was failing to thrive in all areas. Her existence was simply that, she was just alive. In all likelihood we could have kept her alive, but at what cost to her?
A blind bird can be accommodated, a deaf bird too, even a deformed bird. With all these issues added together, little Yennifer just didn’t stand a chance. She was too weak to withstand the testing required to assess her issues. The absolutely devastating decision was made to release little Yennifer from her suffering.
It’s only natural to want to “save” every creature that crosses your path as a rescuer, but something you need to remember is: Are you doing it for the animal, or for yourself? I can say with near certainty that I could have kept Yennifer alive, but would that have been best for her? Would she have any quality of life at all? It is too easy to go to great lengths to save a life, just to say you did. It is admirable to say that you released a soul from suffering, and honored their existence by ignoring your own feelings and taking their’s into account. It is never an easy decision, but it is one that sometimes needs to be made.
This post is aimed to not only highlight the importance of this objectivity, but also remember the souls we have lost, those that stay with us in our hearts, and remind us that what we do may not be easy, but it is necessary.
Each and every bird that we have lost, for whatever reason, has left a mark on all of us, a mark that we wear with pride, because in losing a life we granted freedom from pain, suffering and fear, to a being that deserved it. Every one of these birds, no matter the past they came from, where loved beyond measure in their final days.
We pay tribute to the lost souls:
Abi, the CAG, who was freed from her pain
Yennifer, the Eclectus, who was just too damaged to live this life with us
Max, the CAG, who we went to great lengths to save, but the damage was done too long ago
Litchi, the Pigeon, who fought so hard for so long
Zeppelin, the Kakariki, who we lost unexpectedly to a congenital birth defect
George, the IRN, who passed tragically shortly after finding his forever after
4 of the Tokai IRN’s, who were destined for more than this world
Bonnie, the Eclectus, who passed from a stroke
And there will be more. We will face much more heartbreak and loss, but we will never give up on doing what is best for every bird that crosses our paths.
To support our continued efforts, our banking details are as follows:
Cheeky Beaks Rescue NPC FNB Business Account Branch Code: 250655 Account Number: 62839491850 Reference: Name of bird/your name Proof of payment: cheekybeaksparrotrescue@gmail.com PayPal: cheekybeaksparrotrescue@gmail.com
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