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

Nourishing and Healing Our Spirits and the World

Me teaching about how to nourish wild macaw chicks 

In my last blog I spoke
of how the conservation team in the Mayan Biosphere Reserve is attempting to
augment the wild macaw population by incubating eggs and placing the hatched
chick into foster nests. This process entails being able to feed the chick once
s/he hatches up until it is accepted by his or her new parents.  Feeding parrot chicks may be routine in
captive, controlled situations, but how do you prepare and serve food in areas
with spotty electricity, long hours away from any kind of store?

To answer this
question, I gave a presentation on feeding wild chicks yesterday at the
Wildlife Conservation Society’s headquarters in Flores, El Peten,
Guatemala.  I reviewed concepts and
techniques of pediatric nutrition, and demonstrated how to use Nutristart.  Nutristart is a powder that you simply mix
with hot water to have a complete diet for parrot chicks, although adding 1/8^th
to 1 tsp of peanut butter might be needed for macaws. Lafeber Company donated
this food so that WCS may feed the chicks, which will nourish the wild macaw
population.  Following this I
demonstrated how to use Emeraid, also from Lafeber Company. This is a powdered
enteral diet for weak or debilitated chicks. They do see sick and malnourished chicks
in the wild, especially the 3^rd chick, and an easily prepared
emergency diet such as this might save future lives.

 

Chepe volunteering to be a chick so I could demonstrate tube feeding 

As a wrap up for out
time together, I asked a few questions to augment my ethnoornithology study,
which is focusing on how to support the human dimension of avian conservation
in Central America.  

Filming the presentation and ethnoornithological discussion 

I asked the conservation
team members what values were important to them that they got to live out in
their work.  They spoke of the importance
of their relationships with one another: that they are united, and value the
dedication, respect, humor, and creative interplay that fills their days and
nourishes their own spirits. Under it all is their love for conservation and to
be doing something positive, with others, that helps heal the world.  I then asked what they would ask of the world
and they replied to you. “Do something real, not just for show. Every person
can do something, and what you do, no matter where you are, will help us here.”

 I translate this
into:  If the situation of the world or
your community bugs you, do something about it. 
It matters what you do!

 

Bug seen from side of road on our way back to Flores (photo by Dr. Melvin Merida) 

 

Hatching Hope

 Adult Wild Scarlet Macaw

There was a time in my life when I lived egg
incubation and psittacine pediatrics.  I’ve
been responsible for thousands of eggs and chicks in “the days.”  Recently, the work in Guatemala reminds me
how much one embryo in one egg means to me, and to others.  It is a life full of possibility, and to lose
one egg, is to lose beauty and wonder.

 Here’s the theory why incubation and raising chicks
for a short time in captivity can be an important strategy for parrot
conservation. In Guatemala¸ wild parents frequently lay 3 eggs. The 3^rd
egg appears to have lower hatchability and the 3^rd chick definitely has
a much harder time surviving – they usually die.  The thinking is, if we can help hatch these 3^rd
eggs and raise the 3^rd chick until they are strong enough, these chicks
can then be placed into wild Scarlet macaw nests where there is only one chick.
This will raise the population numbers which are frighteningly low in the only remaining
area of Guatemala with macaws, El Peten. There is also the possibility of transferring
eggs from captive parents into the wild as well.

 

 Dr. Fernando Martinez   of ARCAS pulling two eggs out of a clutch of 4 to give to Dr. Melvin Merida of WCS to transport to Laguna del Tigre

This past week I got to witness the first experiment
in seeing if egg manipulation will help the macaws here.  CONAP, ARCAS, BALAAM, and WCS are all working
together to attempt to incubate eggs and raise chicks deep into the Mayan
Biosphere Reserve, Laguna del Tigre. 

Two eggs were removed from a captive pair of
breeding macaws at ARCAS and then transported very carefully up into the
reserve.  It is a very bumpy, rough road,
and this time of year the mud makes the going even slower.  What can be a 3 hour drive turned into over 5
hours because of a broken clutch in one of the trucks.  We were worried about transporting the eggs,
in part because of the rough road, and also because the eggs were young. The
two eggs showed an embryo that perhaps only had a day of incubation, and the other
with less than week old.  Eggs this young
are fragile, and need to be kept at 99 degrees. We learned that it is somewhat
easy to maintain the eggs at 99 if the outside temperature is around 100
degrees, which it was.

 Melvin and Challo looking for missing clutch piece in mud where were we got stuck

 

Once up at the station in the forest where the eggs
will be incubated, we held our breath while we candled the eggs, which means
shining a light into the egg in a dark room. Did they survive that long
ride?  Indeed they did!

 Live embryo in egg (notice the red blood vessels surrounding embryo)

 That night we drew lots to see who would check on
the eggs and incubator through the night. 
Eggs are sensitive and we needed to monitor carefully how stable the
temperature and humidly was or was not in the incubator.  My turn came at 2 a.m.  Stumbling into the dark under a starry sky, I
looked up and mused that the stars themselves are incubators of life .What
miracle of temperature and humidity/water led to life on this fertile
planet?  I dallied under the stars,
soaking in the peace when my meditation was shattered by a Howler Monkey in a
tree right over my head.  Maybe he too
was looking up at the stars, proclaiming this his proven territory.

 The next afternoon as we prepared to leave this area
after a morning of climbing nests, we candled the eggs once more. Were they
still alive?  Indeed they were, and
growing nicely.   Hope was hatched in the vigor of this species
at such a young age and in the strength of this egg/chick management project in
such a young stage of incubation.

 Happy incubator crew after installing live eggs in new incubator room

These eggs, this forest, this planet, all are our territory.  May we prove adequate to guard and to cherish
these treasures accordingly as we continue to howl our proclamation that every
egg has inherent worth and dignity, as does every being.

 

 

 

What They Do For Love

 Rony Garcia, Head Biologist, WCS - working with video nest monitoring equipment. (Scarlet macaw chick on screen in real time in her/her nest and Rony is below nest)

I have not visited the Wildlife Conservation
Society’s project in the Mayan Bioreserve since this time last year.  The biologists  then were organizing their strategies for
studying and managing the dwindling population of Scarlet Macaws and I joined
them for a month sharing what I know about wild parrot nest and chick
health. 

Their dedication and focus appears ever more apparent.   I’m
impressed with what they are accomplishing including collaborating with other
agencies to protect the birds, guarding and checking nests regularly, and
continuing with nearly weekly chick exams. 
I shared with one member of this conservation team how wondrous it
was to see what they were doing for this species (and hence, for the whole
forest) and he replied – “We are able to do what we do because of love of the
birds.” 

Kender and Dr. Melvin Merida frying plaintains for breakfast before a morning full of climbing macaw nests. 

A few days later out on a long ride into the area of
La Corona I was interviewing members of the conservation team for a
ethnoornithology study.  It’s nearly 5
hours each way along a dirt road, hot, muddy, slippery, and with deep gashes in
the surface in some areas.  So they are perhaps
glad of the diversion my questions provide. I know I am because their answers
provoke me into seeing what is happening here as a beautiful, sacred act.  I asked them what they thought and felt when
working with the birds. One member, a climber of parrot nests, said that when
he is up on top of a tree at a macaw nest with the parents flying around him
and the chicks down below being studied by the avian conservation medical team,
he wonders if others love the birds as much as he does.

Challo Cordova prepared to do a morning's flight of checking location of Guacamayas (macaws) with radio telemetry equipment. 

I think I get what he means.  Seeing these bright beauties, holding them
and touching them, loving them, I scarce can believe that others can feel the
wonder that I do.  If they did, how could
we ever get anything done, being so drunk on flying rainbows. Wouldn’t we all
just wander aimlessly in the forest, looking up into trees, waiting for visions
to confirm that we are whole?  That the
only instructions we need to teach our children is to love? In the words of
Mary Oliver, we are here to love what is mortal, hold it against our breastbone
as if our life depended on it, and when the time comes to let it go, let it go.

Why they do what they do for love - a young Guacamaya 

I am glad to witness this work of WCS, Balaam,
Arcas, White Flight, Conap, the military and a host of others.  It gives me hope that I won’t forget what I have
done for love, and allows me move in the world so I won’t regret what we do for
love, together.

Me, grateful to be sharing this work with the parrots and people of Guatemala 

The Bird Whisperer

 

This week finds me once again in Orlando, Florida attending the North American Veterinary Conference.  There are thousands of veterinarians, though my path stays fairly close to the avian medicine presentations.  I’m checking in to see what is going on in captive avian medicine so I attended “Bird Whisperer.” Totally appreciating the positive change in avian management since those early years when avian medicine was just organizing in the early 80’s, I am grateful for this veterinarian’s advanced understanding of behavior so as to give a better life to our captive companions.

 

My experiences with the wonder and beauty of wild parrots leads me to ponder a few of the principles in modern avian behavior management.  The goal is to empower the bird and give them a choice.  Let them get feedback for the consequences of their behavior so they are empowered to choose which behavior will work best for them.   An example is when a bird presents to a veterinarian and the time comes to wrap the bird in a towel for the exam and diagnostic sampling.  There are methods to reduce the amount of stress the bird undergoes if the veterinarian team takes cues from the bird, moves slowly, and offers reinforcement.  The presenting veterinarian said, “Is the bird having a good time in the exam.  No.  But at least the bird has some control over their environment.” 

 

Could we offer even more control?  I’m imagining this kind of behavioral approach to wild birds or free flying birds and if they would choose to be in proximity to humans.  Would they choose to never fly again or only a few meters at a time?  Would they choose to leave their flocks of hundreds (in some species) to live alone with a human family?  Would they choose to have the option of some 100 food plant sources, or have a significant reduced selection, whose variety is in control of the human?  I assume that if we empowered a wild species the choice, rare would be the one who would volunteerily come into close contact with humans, let alone live inside their structures on a permanent basis. Choose a cage over the threat of predation or hunger?

 

I do not know the answer.  I am not a bird.  However, if I open myself totally to the interior life of the bird, what she or he is feeling and thinking and open myself totally to the interior life of myself, what I am thinking and feeling, I believe that there would be both positive and negative reinforcement on my own behavior that might, just might, lead me and those of my species, to more compassionate care of our kind and our kin of all species. This is my hope, this is my prayer, whispered in love and shouted in actions loud enough for all hearts to hear.

Guatemala Scarlet Macaw Chick Exam

Examining Avian and Human Virtue

At long last I have up a video in three parts that shows the Wildlife Conservation Society team of veterinarians and biologists examining wild Scarlet Macaw nest in Guatemala. It depicts a fairly thorough physical examination of wild parrots that is possible under field conditions. We learned so much about the birds, and about ourselves while doing this work in April of 2009. As you watch these videos perhaps you too can learn about what it means to be human in a community of mixed species, for me a primary religious, ethical, and hence scientific question. Like us, birds have the virtues of caring, compassion, protection, prudence, and nurturance. The parents care for their young, feed them, protect them, treat them with kindness, while also keeping a safe distance from we humans climbing the trees. You can hear the parents calling out in warning while we handle the chicks.

 

Like us, birds are anxious for the well being of other birds.  The calling of the parents echoes our own anxiety about what will happen to the younger chick, and what can we possibly do to save this one bird, let alone an entire species that is under threat from poaching, forest fires, and habitat loss that results from an economic system that is based on addiction – to consumerism, to drugs, to satisfying one’s own needs, now, at the costs of meeting others basic needs.

 

Like us, birds demonstrate perseverance, strength, and adaptability.  The youngest chick in this nest (the second one to be examined) is frightfully thin and over the next several weeks falls further and further behind in weight as her/his sibling thrives. Yet the bird lives for several more weeks as one or both parents still feed the ailing chick.

 

 

Like us, birds are beautiful, defiantly so as it seems against all odds that such a rainbow of colors and social complexity survives from egg to the powerful, gliding adults circling over us during the examination. How did such beauty come into existence and how shall it survive we ask? To answer this question we continue to examine our own lives, our own complicity in a system fraught with harm for ourselves and others, and we continue to examine these birds and their chicks, for the hope of understanding what is ours to do in this world. How shall we liberate ourselves as we liberate the birds, and love ourselves as all our neighbors?

The Antecedent of Compassion

 Twenty years since my last entry into the Orlando Florida hotel and conference scene, I entered the Marriott Hotel this week to attend the North American Veterinary Conference.  What a huge undertaking – possibly the largest in the world with over 16,000 attendees.  I was astounded at the amount of business and wealth in the veterinary profession.  My last major foray in veterinary medicine had been as a wildlife veterinarian in Latin America and I’m still getting use to the privileged life our communities of all species enjoy here.  May I never take it for granted and always question it.  My primary goal in Orlando though was not to question.  Instead I desired connection with veterinary colleagues in our hope for the flourishing of all life. 

 

One lecture addressed the syndrome and in my mind, tragedy, of feather picking in captive birds.  Medical and behavioral approaches exist to curb this destructive behavior, so aptly taught to us by the presenter. What struck me though as profoundly indicative of our human culture was how the instructor spoke of causes of the feather picking in birds, termed the “antecedent.”  The list was rather long but did not include the primary ones that I hold in my heart in my combined approach as both avian veterinarian and minister.  Way back before we get into behavior or telos that is thwarted by captive situations, we need to look at the initiating cause, captivity.  Clearly if we removed captivity from the history of the bird, we’d not see feather picking for it barely exists in wild birds.

 

Even before captivity though we can follow the chain of antecedents into our hearts, minds, and human biology and culture.  There we might come up with a host of initiating causes.  What might you suggest?

 

Here are a few of mine.

 

• We desire beauty and companionship.


• We humans center ourselves and our needs in the web of life and objectivity other life forms, including ourselves.


• We orient towards dominations as a way to meet our basic needs as opposed to the consideration of all beings needs and the earth communities needs as a whole.


• We struggle to face the tragedy and harm of our decisions, leading to denial and disconnection relationships for ourselves.

 Even further then these is an even more fundamental antecedent.  We yearn for connection and a sense of belonging on this planet, and suffer ourselves and bring it onto others when we think we are separate from the whole of existence.  If we could but just see how we are so precious with the conduit of life flowing through us in our uniqueness, and also how insignificant we are, we might temper our actions and be able to face the consequences of our life on earth.  We could do this with a deep awareness of interconnection, and with the mantra that the suffering of one is the suffering of all, and the beauty and flourishing of all, is the beauty that never leaves us – it is behind us, in front of us, flying overhead, under us, and in us.  These embodied knowing then is the antecedent of compassion and seems to me to be the primary treatment for most dis-ease in ourselves and in the life around us.  As veterinarians, as lover of birds, as conservationists, and as humans, may we heal ourselves so that we may be healers of the world.