| Viewing Single Post From: nanday alert | |
|---|---|
| conure58 | Jan 28 2008, 10:26 AM |
Administrator
|
Sounds like the Sunday meeting went well. Some info from another forum: Our meeting today with the Game Commission went very well. I think they were surprised by the turnout of support for the Nanday's. There were people there from all over the state and also from Delaware and Maryland and we all wore Nanday Stickers in support of PA's Nanday's. One of our biggest supporters was Dr. Paul Miller, PhD, DVM (specialty is avian medicine), who works for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture where he is an Avian Diagnostician and Pathologist at the PA Veterinary Lab in Harrisburg. Dr. Miller has also been a zoo keeper caring for a wide variety of avian species as well as having been owned by parrots. Through the Dept. of Agriculture, he has been assigned on occasion to do work for the game commission but today he was on our side. Dr. Miller was one of the first people called to speak and he told the game commission exactly what he thought. He provided his own documentation plus copies of the research paper that the game commission used as the basis for their decision to ban the Nanday Conure in Pennsylvania. Dr. Miller was kind enough to give me a copy of this research paper of which I plan to scan tomorrow and make available to those who would like it. If you'd like a copy just send me an e-mail. Dr. Miller passed out copies of this research paper back to each member of the game commissions council with sections highlighted that proved there was no basis to ban Nanday's from PA. The research paper in question, was based on feral flocks in the city and suburb areas of California and Florida the only two states in the USA that have feral Nanday's. Dr. Miller also made it clear that captive bred parrots are not "wildlife" but rather "domestic" pets and should not be regulated as "wildlife." One of the sections of the research paper that Dr. Miller highlighted was this passage: "Most feral psittacine birds roost in the open and may not be able to survive prolonged exposure to cold temperatures." The passage goes on to state how Rose-ringed parakeets introduced into New York City, suffered from frostbite during the winter. When one of the council members brought up the question of exotic newcastle's disease, Dr. Miller made it clear that the Ag Dept. and the PA Dept. of Health have "active aggressive control and monitoring programs for all the common zoonotic diseases." He also made the statement that the game commission has no business trying to regulate a domesticated pet let alone animal diseases. That, he said, was up to the Ag Dept. and the Dept. of Health. Dr. Miller also made the statement that "NO parrot species poses a significant threat to public health." The other speakers, including Dr. John Hall, VDM, who told the game commission that he owns a Nanday, stressed the points that Dr. Miller made throughout the day. And at the beginning of the meeting one of the speakers against the ban, brought up the issue of the "grandfather" clause. Carl Roe, the PGC's executive director said that any Nanday already in the state would not be taken and that they would not be showing up at our doors to take our birds. However, the speaker then stated that the proposal as it is written now, does not state that fact and that it needs to be written with a "grandfather" clause. She then went on to ask the commission if the "grandfather" clause would extend to any Nanday's that were born in the future to those already in captivity at which point all council members started writing notes but no answer was given. We do know that at least one council member is voting "No" at the preliminary voting on Tuesday and another council member said he doesn't think the proposed ban will pass this preliminary voting on Tuesday. If that's the case, then our "enmass" presence today was a success. If however, this isn't the case, the actual and final voting won't be done until April. That means we would have two and a half months to press the issue by constantly e-mailing, phoning and writing not only to the PGC, but also to all of our state reps, legislators, the governor and all local officials. And they do reply back. I've written letters and e-mails many times on issues that I feel strongly about and I've always received either a phone call or a letter in the mail from those reps, legislators and senators. On another note, Harrisburg's Channel 21 (Fox) was also there when we arrived and they interviewed the president of our bird club who is also owns parrots and is also a breeder, plus two of our other club members who own avian rescues. The Lancaster Sunday News did a wonderful article on our mission and the Harrisburg Patriot News had a reporter at the meeting. I've added the article from the Lancaster Sunday News to this post. Read it....yes PETA is involved. So now we'll just have to wait and see what happens Tuesday. We do have a representitive staying in Harrisburg who will be attending Monday's public comment session as well as the preliminary voting session on Tuesday. As soon as he finds out if the proposed ban passes or not, he'll let me know at which time I will let you know. KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED! News Article from the Lancaster Sunday News: Birds-of-a-feather raise a big flap Owners of South American breed will flock to Game Commission meeting today. State wants to ban, not seize or kill, bird it fears could establish colonies in the wild. By JON RUTTER, Staff Sunday News Published: Jan 27, 2008 12:19 AM EST LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - A Pennsylvania Game Commission proposal to ban nanday conure parrots is raising a squawk in Harrisburg. Bird fanciers say it's unfair to single out the green South American birds. "If they can justify banning the nanday," said Chet Fuhrman of Columbia, "then they can justify banning any pet bird species." Numerous parrot lovers are expected to converge on Game Commission headquarters, 2001 Elmerton Ave., at 1 p.m. today during a session to gather public input. But PGC spokesman Jerry Feaser said people are blowing the issue out of proportion. Rumors aside, Feaser said, the commission has no plan to confiscate birds. "A lot of this is based on the false assumption that there would be a roundup and euthanization of these animals. That is not part of this proposal." Nor is the suggested change much of a change, he said. Prohibitions against the possession, importation, release and sale of "captive bred" animals from other states or nations have been on the books since 1992. At that time, the Game Commission explicitly forbade transactions involving monk parakeets, also known as Quaker parrots, which have established feral colonies in Florida, Texas and New York. Now, said Feaser, the commissioners are considering further clarifications that would ban nandays and some primates. The Game Commission will hear more public testimony beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Monday and take a preliminary vote on its agenda items on Tuesday. Feaser said the action must be publicized in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, as must a second approval vote, before the regulation would become law. The main goal is to keep escaped or released nanday conures from gaining a foothold in the Pennsylvania wild. The likelihood of colonization is remote, Feaser said, but not impossible. "We've already been down this road." Parrots gone wild? And it rides like a slippery slope, asserted Jen Johnson of the Lancaster County parrot rescue group Feathered Sanctuary. "Clearly, it's not as though nanday conures are descending on Pennsylvania and wreaking havoc on our wildlife habitat," Johnson said. Monk parakeets are considered pests because they build large stick nests in developed areas. However, the National Audubon Society's director of bird conservation, Greg Butcher, said he had not heard of any established populations of feral nanday conures. Smoketown veterinarian John Hall was skeptical that the solitary nandays could survive a Pennsylvania winter or evade predators such as red-tailed hawks. "The chance of that is very slim," said Hall, who helps advise Feathered Sanctuary and the Stanley Parrot Foundation in York County. Birds are the third most popular pets, after dogs and cats. Parrot owners were preparing last week to counter possible claims that their pets threaten human health by noting that the birds have not been shown to transmit bird flu or commonly carry other diseases. Hall said none of the 250 to 300 nanday conures he has examined over the past five years has harbored psittacosis, a bacterial disease transmissable to humans. But Stephanie Bell, a senior cruelty caseworker with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said avian health is a key argument against cooping up an estimated 10 million pet birds in the United States. "No bird is designed to live in a cage" or have its wings clipped, she said. Bell said birds are intensely social creatures that when confined exhibit obvious signs of physical and mental stress, such as biting and feather pulling. PETA supports the Game Commission initiative but is not pushing it, Bell said. "People who know PETA's stance on captive birds have made assumptions." Feaser said the pet industry sparked the proposal. "We were approached by several reputable pet stores and dealers" seeking clarification of the law, he said. Irate parrot fanciers from Pennsylvania and surrounding states were mobilizing over the Internet last week. "People love their pets," Johnson said. Caging raises "a little bit of an ethical issue," Hall acknowledged. But parrots, which are intelligent and long-lived, form strong bonds with responsible caretakers. "These birds definitely want to be with you," Hall said. ________________________________________ Jon Rutter is a staff writer for the Sunday News. __________________ |
 |
|
| nanday alert · Web Links | |
 12:44 PM Nov 28
|
Hosted for free by ZetaBoards
