Liberating Wings

A Prayer for Chickens

Here I reflect on how we might think of what to do about the plight of chickens in factory farming.  I ask whether factory farming is "wrong" and conclude that based on my experience and understanding, it is, and that it is on the verge of being condemned as immoral by the society at large.  This video was inspired when I was recently passed on the road by a truck full of chickens on the way to a slaughter house. This led me to a sense of prayerful reflection.  How might we reduce their suffering?  I suggest we can do this not through feelings of guilt and despair, but through a sense of interconnection between the beauty within and the beauty without, in chickens, and in all of life.

 

 

Rio - Liberating You and Blue

Rio, the top box office draw over the last two weekends, is a story of liberation. The main character, Blue, is a large blue macaw and the last male of his kind. He was taken forcibly from the wild as a chick and raised in the U.S. by a caring human; however, he never learned to fly. Now 15 years old, he volunteers to go back to Brazil to meet up with the last female of their species, Jewel, who trapped from the wild and now residing in a large flight, is desperate to escape.  

 

Blue and Jewel in Rio

 

These aren’t the only two characters who are trapped. The woman who came of age with Blue, lives a happy, though apparently solitary and staid life. She meets up with the Brazilian conservationist, who is caught up in his own narrowly focused and urgent need to save a species. The foils of the story, the “boss” of an illegal animal trade business and his two henchmen, unable to rise above their favela (slum) origins, are caught in a web of desperate business adventures that often turn to violence. A temporary member of their gang is an orphaned street boy, who out of necessity aids the trappers, and then regrets his actions.

The movie shows how birds and humans are not living the good life, except for the wild birds in the opening and closing musical number who joyfully dance and sing “Rio” in a jungle scene reminiscent of the Garden of Eden. Their paradise is shattered when humans enter their realm and catch them, including Blue as a chick. We see the contrast of a beautiful nature without humans, and a devastated earth with humans. Reminding us of the movie Avatar, this movie screams “pop culture” in that it raises the question increasingly before us, “How are we humans to escape a future where we are so caught in our consumerist ways that we threaten all lives around us?” I don’t mind trendy movies at all, and in fact adore them when they help us understand who we are, especially in terms of parrot conservation.

I especially find Rio poignant because human ownership of parrots has tenaciously been before me in the last two weeks. The weekend the movie came out, I was amongst many captive birds. I was invited to be the guest presenter at The Avicultural Society of Chicago during a fund raising dinner for my conservation work (thank you!). After all day staffing a booth on behalf of One Earth Conservation and Lafeber Conservation and Wildlife while it snowed (yes in mid-April), we gathered in th evening to learn about the people and parrots of Latin America, and what we might together do to preserve the splendor of the earth. Though I never brought up the inherent tension between birds in homes and birds in their native habitats, many people did. It was on their minds, for they spoke of how much they wanted their birds to fly free, and the inappropriateness of caging their beloveds. I suppose they also wished that for themselves, for like the humans in the movie Rio, they too are trapped, each in their own way. They wanted to know what I thought of the movie, and I believe also, what I thought of their lives. 

Kaieteur Falls, Guyana

Their lives are in sharp contrast with where I had just come from, a land of wild jungles, indigenous peoples, and free flying parrots – Guyana. For the last 12 days I had been traveling in Guyana with Foster Parrots, a bird sanctuary as well as a leader in Guyana conservation. While in Guyana we saw amazing jungle scenes, replete with startlingly and awe inspiring free flying parrots. They might not have been singing to a calypso beat as did the cartoon birds in Rio, but observing them inspired awe and a sense of liberating joy, much like the opening and ending scenes in the movie.

 

Red and Green Macaws Flying in Front of Falls

 

What haunts us though is whether the real life trappers and resource extractors of the Guyana forests will win out. It has already in fact happened at least with one macaw species much like the movie depicts. The Spix Macaw, also all blue in color, used to fly over the northeastern landscapes of Brazil. Their numbers declined due to trapping until there was only one lone male left in the wild. A female bird was found in captivity that had originally been caught from the wild, and she was relocated to the jungle, and then released in the area of the lone male. Unfortunately the female disappeared before a successful union took place, and the male died in 2000. Now there are no birds in the wild, only captive birds who are hopefully the beginning of a new flock, and not the end of a species.

 Last Known Nest Site of the Spix Macaw

 

This movie shows how we might bring about a different ending than what happened to the Spix Macaw. Though the birds are repeatedly caged, chained, and grounded, Blue eventually learns to fly, and in so doing, frees his new love who has an injured wing. Blue discovers the thrill and passion of flying and he elects to stay free. With his new mate, they return to the wild and live happily ever after. So too do Blue’s woman companion, the conservationist, and the orphan boy who become a family. The trappers end up defeated and their evil days come to an end.

 

Let be me so pedestrian as to suggest some underlying themes that jump out at me in this movie:

1. Many of us do not know we are trapped, or that life could be more wonderful and liberating.

2. If we don’t know we are trapped, we cannot free ourselves, or others. If we are trapping others, we ourselves are trapped.

3. We are interrelated in our imprisonment – the tragedies wrought by humans damages humans who end up orphaned and in slums, or birds who never know of flight. If any one of us is imprisoned, so are all of us.

4. We are interrelated in our liberation – in freeing others, we become free. To free everyone, we must work together and be in solidarity with the plight of both the trapped and trapper.

5. There are no clear demarcations between the trapped and the untrapped. Some free flying birds suffer greatly, while some others in cages lead what looks to be good lives and seem to flourish. Ultimately, only the individual his or herself can know what is missing, or where the wounds are. Even though we may never know the “other” or even ourselves with much clarity, we can always offer freedom to ourselves and others by cultivating choices.

6. We are trapped by our evolution and culture, yes, and we are freed by our choices in how we wish to live, grow, and give to others.

Am I saying that the story of our 21st century can end like the movie Rio with happy, joyful humans and birds frolicking together in a beautiful forest? In so many ways we already do, at least that’s what it feels like sometimes during my parrot conservation work in Latin America. However, I am ever so cognizant of the dual reality of how much we are losing, and how fast; birds and humans are frantically trying to survive. Even if we somehow make it eventually in some century, we won’t ever vanquish the reality that the jungle is a harsh place, with our without humans. There will always be sadness, loss, harm, pain, and yes, the cruelty of our ways, and evolution’s.

 

I accept this reality, and so reject the surrealism of Rio which suggests that we can totally excise suffering from our world. However, knowing this, I believe we come begin to accept what we as a species have wrought, and open ourselves to all of who we are, the good, the bad, and the ugly. In this embrace of a world both wondrous and terrifying, we can intentionally find the ways to guard our failings without trapping beauty, unlock our potential, and set ourselves free, and all beings with us.

 

How will you gain your freedom, and offer it to others?

Flying Free with Intimate Conversations

Blue and Gold Macaw (photo by Sander van der Wel)

 

In January I attended the Parrot Festival in Houston Texas. While there I heard a presentation by Rick Jordan, “The Future of Aviculture.” He expressed views that if we lose the ability for people to own and breed birds in captivity, we will lose a great good for the people involved, and for conservation and avian medicine. Throughout his talk, he said that we all needed to talk to one another, even though we may have different views.

 

In the spirit of his invitation that we should all talk, I met with Rick alone later in the day. I wanted to hear more about him and if he was willing to hear my story. We began talking of our common roots, of how we both had worked at the Aviculture Breeding and Research Center (ABRC) in Loxahatchee, Florida in the late 1980′s. This was a very large avian breeding facility that only in my last months there began to sell the hundreds of birds that hatched there to collectors and to pet owners. I left in part because these birds were so precious to me and I was not comfortable for them to enter the pet trade where many would end up in situations where they would not be adequately cared for over the span of their lives. I spoke of how much I had been a part of aviculture then, like him, and how after listening to him I could see the good that came of it: relationships between people, building a vibrant human community, income, contribution to science, conservation, and veterinary medicine, and fostering human-nonhuman relationships. He agreed and seemed to appreciate this common understanding we had.

 

Rick Jordan, Sharon Wolf, Julie, and Trent at ABRC in 1989 (mock fighting)

 

I then told him that after leaving ABRC I had begun to work almost exclusively with wild parrots, and I had changed. Seeing their complex and beautifully compelling behaviors and social structures, I found it increasingly difficult to work with birds who were not free flying. It was as if the birds had become the “sacred other” and that I longed to be in relationship with them not on my terms, but based on their evolved natural states. I wanted to be part of a system where birds were granted the utmost consideration, compassion and care, and nothing less, and not one that often treated birds as objects of human desire and not as subjects with their own inherent worth and dignity. I claimed this story as my own, and did not mean it as a statement of what Rick should or should not do.

 It was then that Rick amazed me by saying how he resonated with what I had shared. He told of how he had the chance to see free flying Lear’s Macaws in Brazil. When he saw them, he thought, “I’m glad that there are no Lear’s Macaws in the pet trade. They should be free flying.” Rick then told me that when he returned to the U.S. he was depressed with the reality of seeing his parrots in captivity. The beauty of a flying macaw had shaken him to the core. After several months he then had a chance to see a staff member of his bond with a parrot chick, and the love and care expressed by the human to the bird was also a beauty that deeply reached him.

 

Lear's Macaws

 

What surprised us both is how similar we were and how we could get to the heart of what motivated our behavior and relationships with birds. What I also saw was that if we can slow down and hold conversations about our deep appreciation of birds with respect and empathy towards one another, we might harvest the power of relationships between humans, and between humans and birds so that we can make a better life for all. We need all of us at the table to listen and to contribute, because the task before us in conservation and avian welfare is no easy one. There are tragic consequences to our human presence here on this planet, but together, we might just be able to preserve the magnificent splendor of this earth.

 

I am grateful for our conversation for it is with the telling of these kinds of stories that we engage in a process of narrative ethics. We place ourselves in the situation of others, and by being there, work out what is ours to do on behalf of others in this complex world.

 

Thank you Rick for sharing your story with me, and giving me permission to share it with my readers, for I believe that our conversation will help others share likewise, for the sake of all. 

 

Green-winged Macaws (photo by Ricardo Sanchez)

Owls Get a Kick Out of Soccer

 

There is nothing as liberating as a good soccer game.  It can also be dangerous in parts of the world as soccer has been the inciting stimulus for riots, death threats, murder, and in one case, a war between Honduras and El Salvador. Recently this harm extended to an owl.  A tame barn owl, the mascot of a Columbian soccer team, flew down to the field during a game and was hit by the ball.  While still stunned, Panamanian footballer Luis Moreno kicked the bird off the field.  The bird died two days later, suffering a broken wing and shock. The crowd yelled "murderer," and Moreno had to leave the game under police escort.  Since then he has received threats.  He won't be prosecuted because Columbia has no laws against animal cruelty, although the soccer league penalized him by requiring a fine and banning him from the next two games. 

 

 

This is a painful reminder of how humans in their worst moments do not have the capacity for compassion and care, even when beauty of game and bird surrounds them.  But sometimes we do.

In a 2008 soccer game between Finland and Belgium, a great-horned owl visits the game, flying around the stadium and landing on the goal posts. The officials stopped the game and the crowd cheers and applauds the owl. Smiles and laughter abound.

 

 

 

In another instance, rescuers remove another Great-horned Owl that had become entangled in a soccer net.

 

 

 

There is beauty all around us, and there is nothing as liberating as people responding by loving and saving the birds of our world.  How though do we make sense of our complicated natures where we both get a kick out of birds and kick them?

Sufi poet Rumi writes, "There is a field out beyond wrongdoing and rightdoing. I'll meet you there."

On that soccer field, great apes and owls are neither wrong or right. Instead  we are caught up in our goal directed lives, and make tragic choices that harm ourselves and others. 

May we this day see the beauty within and without, and in our gratitude, not penalize the beings of this earth.

 

 

Owl Ethics - Spotted Owl Versus the Barred Owl

 Spotted Owl (photo by USFWS)

 

The northern spotted owl is in the news again, this time as linked to the death of 1200-1500 barred owls.  This summer, the USFWS may release in an environemental impact statement their reccomendation to kill barred owls. This is in response to the increasing range of the native barred owl who pushes out the the endangered spotted owl. 

"It's a wrenching decision that splits wildlife biologists and environmentalists. Killing one native animal to benefit another is such a leap that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hired an environmental ethicist to guide its discussions."

"There's no winner in that debate," says Bob Sallinger, conservation director with the Portland Audubon Society. 

Making difficult decisions is not new in wildlife management and conservation.  Federal workers have killed comorants, terns, and seals to protect salmon and in Puerto Rico, Red-tailed Hawks are killed to reduce their predation on the endangered Puerto Rican Parrot.

As a wildlife veterinarian I have been faced with the moral dilemmas present in this work and have been severely challenged as I wade with others through the ethical morass of wildlife care and management.

For this reason I recently finished a chapter, Wandering Through the Wilderness of Ethical Discourse, in the book Topics in Wildlife Medicine: Ethical Considerations in Wildlife Medicine. This book will be published by the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association (NWRA).  In it I suggest that our lives are full of tragic decisions and that to care for ourselves and others we must improve our skills in ethical deliberation, and we need to do it together.

 For this aim I am traveling to the NWRA 2011 Symposium in Albany, NY next week to give a seminar on Compassionate Rehabilitation.  My hope is that we can learn and practice together how to talk to one another so that we use our community resources to arrive at the best decisions to help the most species and individuals.

One way I suggest we do this is to practice Needs Based Ethics.  In this approach we do not say that one species or individual is of more worth than another.  Instead we bring to the table a deep appreciation of the worth and dignity of all of life.  What guides our discussion is discerning and empathizing with the needs of all species and individuals within a given situation.  By keeping our hearts and minds open, which I admit is difficult given the loss of life resulting from our daily activities, choices, and conservation management decisions, we can come up with creative solutions. 

In the end, not all beauty may be preserved in the way we'd like.  We may howl over owls, but not at each other through the tactics of shame and blame.  In the end, we will have one another with which to mourn and can claim that at least we did not turn from the splendor that is ever present to us in owl, human, tree, and fish.   

 

National Bird Day

 It's the turning of the year, and perhaps like me you are thinking of taxes coming due and all that paperwork. Here's a poem by Mary Oliver - "Percy Speaks While I am Doing Taxes."

First of all, I do not want to be doing this.

Second of all, Percy does not want me

  to be doing this.

hanging over my desk like a besieged person

  with a dull pencil and innumerable lists

    of numbers.

 

Outside the water is blue, the sky is clear,

  the tide rising.

Percy, I say, this has to be done. This is

  essential. I'll be finished eventually.

 

Keep me in your thoughts, he replies. Just because

  I can't count to ten doesn't mean

I don't remember yesterday, or anticipate today.

  I give you one more hour, then we step out

into the beautiful, money-deaf gift of the world

and run.

 

Just this last month I read about language research with a dog who knew more than 1000 words.  They do understand a lot.

Currently I am reading the book, "Parrot Behavior" and just yesterday read about parrots that that understand not just hundreds of words, but can combine words into sentences.  They do understand a lot.

All of this reminds me of the movie, "Forest Gump" where Forest says, "I may not be smart, but I know what love is."

No matter how we see the intelligence of another being, whether it is comparable to humans or to other species or not, I do believe that we share with the other social vertebrates a common neural structure of emotional responses that evolved out of this beautiful earth.

Baby, we were born to run, to love, and feel deep gratitude for the gifts around us.

And in light of it being National Bird Day, I offer deep bows of gratitude those who were born to fly!

 

What were you born to do?

 

 

 

 

 

Companions and Compassion

 Exodor 

I lived with a Nanday Conure by the name of Exodor for 23 years.  He died in 2003.  I still have his egg and have an image of one of his feathers as a tattoo.  More than anything the image of his beautiful and graceful self is engraved in my heart for ever.  He had such spunk, courage, deep intelligence, and loyalty. He lived with me all over including California, Alaska, Tennessee, Texas, North Carolina, and Guatemala.  There are hundreds of stories I could tell that would testify to his inherent worth and dignity, but perhaps more than anything I recall is the beauty of his flight as he flew across the room to join me with that high pitched call that screamed out "I'm so alive, I'm so glad to see you, I'm such a conure!"

Because of my deep bond with him I am especially attuned to others of his species.  A few years ago I was in St. Petersburg. I heard a squawk and my heart leaped. Sure enough there was family of Nandays coming in and out of a nest cavity in a palm tree in a parking lot.  I was so enamored with them that I took my spouse back there a few months later to celebrate our anniversary what we now fondly know of as "St. Parrotsburg."  We spent the day walking around the down town area chasing Nandays, Quakers, and various other kinds of free flying parrots that were far from their original lands. 

 

Nandays in Sarasota 

The countries of origin though don't seem so far away now that I have known Nandays.  Through Exodor I am forever called to pay attention to wild parrots, and care for them.  For now I know how they are like feathered angels, gifting us with a picture of heaven on earth where all beings belong. 

 (photo by Robert Blanchard) 

Others have been gifted to with this connection of wild and companion birds.  Recently I have become friends with Marc Johnson and Karen Windsor of Foster Parrots.  I am so taken with them and their projects in in Guyana.  I interviewed them and highlighted their work on my other blog, Lafeber Conservation and Wildlife.   Here's is what I found.  They know power and are yielding it well, if not with discomfort and pain on their part. Because in their work with companion birds where they love them, care for them, sacrifice for them, and witness to their beauty and their suffering, they can draw on authentic  motivations to address the situation of the free flying wild counterparts in Guyana and other countries.  They do not keep their heart and dedication enclosed into a box, but extend it out to other species, including their fellow great apes - humans.  This is perhaps the hardest piece, loving our human neighbors as ourselves in our mixed species communities. 

I have struggled mightily with this, for I wish to blame someone for the pain and loss of our beautiful world.  Somehow, though, I know that blame is not the answer. For simply, if there is not enough love, compassion, or beauty in the world, then I will do everything I can for there to be more, and not less.  This means that I must undertake to see the beauty in all of life and in the whole. This includes we humans.  We need us all at the table so we can nourish one another, so that the earth and all her beings may flourish. 

A simple message, but a most difficult one to follow through on.

So I write here to gather us all together so that we might support one another towards a more compassionate world - liberating ourselves as we liberate the birds we love.

Thank you Marc and Karen. For through your work, you give we humans the opportunity to be who we are and were always supposed to be.

 Marc Johnson, Karen Windsor, and Friends 

Welfare from A Bird's Eye View

Nancy Burke Loving a Hundred Year Old Yellow-crowned Amazon Parrot

  

I have recently returned from several weeks of being among bird people, attending a bird veterinarian conference (the Association of Avian Veterinarians), a bird owner/breeder conference (American Federation of Aviculture), an avian veterinary clinics (Bird and Exotic Pet Wellness Center) and pet bird owners of flocks. There was a time when I could not have spent enjoyable time amongst them, for I thought they were "wrong" for keeping wild birds in captivity.  Through the deep work of Nonviolent Communication that I translate into Compassionate Conservation, I am learning to see that these people are not wrong, nor am I.   Life flows through them just as it does me, striving to bring appreciation, beauty, companionship, and nurturing to their lives.  They love birds, I love birds. They care for birds, I care for birds.  They choose to do so by keeping birds in cages in their homes, or treating captive birds in their clinics, while I choose to work with wild parrots in Latin America.  Our strategies differ, but we are interdependent with one another, not separate, but worthy and lovely.  We share life.  Because I appreciate our common humanity and might empathize with them, I can be among them,  and even more important to me, love them for who they are and keep my heart open to the beauty that is their lives.  This does not mean that I do not mourn their strategies. Indeed, after several weeks of being among captive birds and hearing of their hard lives in captivity, I am ready for a break.  My heart hurts to witness such suffering. 

Striving to relate through common needs also doesn't mean that I don't tell others what is going on in my heart.  Indeed there were many such discussions.  In that sharing, my aching heart does find relief, for at the level of universal needs, of mattering and seeing that other species matter, we were able to connect.  By seeing our discomfort as being at the level of strategy, and not at the level of universal needs, we find ways to empathize with one another, support one another, and hopefully  help one another see that we matter so that we can work together in ways that reflect the needs of all beings.

This is my dream and my prayer for we who share our lives with birds, especially this year as we work together to develop guidelines for birds under the Animal Welfare Act.  I strongly believe that we need all of us at the table, so that we might nourish birds, ourselves, and the world we share with them with our creative, loving, synergy.  May this be so.

 

 

American Federation of Aviculture Convention: The Magic of People and Parrots

 

 

On Saturday I gave a presentation at the American Federation of Aviculture (AFA) Symposium in St. Petersburg, Florida (my spouse and I call it St. Parrotsburg because of all the naturalized parrots flying around).  Some 20 years ago I was a regular attendee at these conventions when I was more active as a veterinarian of captive birds.  I returned to be with these aviculturists because I need them, and so the people and parrots of the world.  The goal for my paper, "Wild Psittacine  Chick and Nest Assessment: A Green Paper" was to convey my conviction that we need every one at the table to help solve the complex and often overwhelming problems confronting us in avian conservation, especially in Central America.  From my view point, everyone is on the conservation team for parrots.  If you work towards the well being of yourself, others, and birds - no matter where you are - you are contributing to the well being of the planet and all communities of mixed species.  We are one planet and we share one health.  The audience at AFA gave me many wonderful and clear suggestions, and already I believe I can share this information with those with whom I work more closely with on my various conservation teams.  Imagine what we might accomplish if more people become involved?

I ask you, therefore, if you would be a participatory member of this team.  One thing you can do is read this paper, and contribute to it.  I have it posted as a google document at:   https://docs1.google.com/document/edit?id=1EsNt-a3dengFR5YVdI2iWYKTcVNiY5btWF41yHakPyI&authkey=CKOSgoMJ&hl=en#.  You can make comments, edits, additions, and deletions directly there, or email me with your changes. If you have trouble accessing the document in google, email me and I will send you a copy of the paper.

 Please do distribute this document to others so that together we can build the kind of world we wish to live in.

 

 In gratitude,

LoraKim

AAV Welfare Symposium Helps to Liberate Wings

 

This week I am attending the Association of Avian Veterinarians Welfare Symposium.  The range of people present gathering in one room trying to learn and listen to one another was the broadest I have ever seen in one room.  We had avian welfare activists, staff veterinarians for Petco and Petsmart.  USDA and Canada welfare regulatory veterinarians, sanctuary parrot owners, advocates of poultry well being, conservationists, private practice veterinarians, and one minister (me). The name of the entire conference was “Waves of Wisdom” and it is clear from what was shared in that room that there is gathering wisdom and power, and the wave towards human and avian liberation is there for any who wish to ride upon.  Here are some of the comments I heard that make up the gathering wisdom literature  of those concerned with the well being of all life (with my accompanying commentary).

  

 

Terry  Whitting , (Manitoba Agriculture, Chief Veterinarian): It is easier to believe than to talk about things.   He was referring to the complexity of avian welfare .When people are confronted with complex difficult topics, they shift into belief language and avoid communication with other humans.  It is this belief language then that keeps us from communicating at the level of values, authenticity, and interconnecting empathy. He went on to say that though we do some good work with the human –animal bond; it does not count as a relational ethic.  If anything, it detracts from the real work we need to be doing of compassionate care.  He concluded that we need skillful communication and I can whole heartedly echo – boy howdy!  Hence my presentation two days later on compassionate communication at this same conference.

Julie Murad, Director of Gabriel Foundation, a parrot sanctuary, said in her presentation that we need a more compassionate society. Again, I echo, boy howdy!  But how do we get there?

One way I see is how we all came into that one room.  Somehow we are gaining a common language of beauty, and this interconnecting gestalt ties us to one another and raises the level of trust so that we find a way to still the chatter that says you are wrong or you are different, and open our hearts to the beauty and dignity not just of the birds we love, but of one another.

 Do you believe that I am over stating the evolution of these people involved in avian welfare?  Let me give you an example.  At the AAV Avian Welfare Committee Jan Hooemeijer said that the social event kicking off the AAV meeting held at Sea World was morally inadequate. As veterinarians interested in the welfare of animals we should not be supporting activities that diminish the well being of others.  Those in the room were asked if they agreed. The hands raised immediately and enthusiastically. There was no discussion, no argument - just a consensus to do the right thing for those whose inherent worth has been diminished and disempowered  by the human species.  Yet is seems that is we who have been disempowered over the long millennia because we do not see how our own lives weave into the interconnected web of life.  This is changing.  Seeing and sharing the beauty and worth of whales, parrots, and chickens is finally bringing us into our power, which liberates us as it liberates others.

Raising  Wings and Hands Together for Avian Welfare (Starling near AAV San Diego Hotel) 

 

Hands and Wings Raised in Solidarity in San Diego