Abstract
Parrot Festival comes but once a year, so says the publicity for the I Ith annual convention at the DoubleTree Hotel near the Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas. The conference is always held on the last full
weekend of January, which happened to be Jan. 28-30 this year. What began just a few years ago under a tent outside during a rare cold snap has become rich conference hosting speakers from all over the world. The Parrot Festival is truly unique because of its eclectic blend of speakers. It has become the one place that mixes voices from all walks including: breeders, conservationists, rescue organizations, behaviorists, veterinarians, researchers, animal trainers, nutritionists, and pet industry powerhouses like Rolf C. Hagen. It's a little bit of AFA, ASA, AAV, and a bird mart all rolled into one. No birds are for sale or on display, only products and the like.
Speakers for the 2011 Parrot Festival included: Dr. Jeleen Briscoe, VMD, ABVP (Avian); the Rev. LoraKim Joyner, DVM; Barbara Heidenriech, animal trainer; Dr. Susan Clubb, ABVP (Avian); Kashmir Csaky, behaviorist and breeder; Dr. Walt Frey, breeder; Nancy Speed, breeder; David N. Phalen, DVM, Ph.D., ABVP (Avian); M. Scott Echols, DVM, ABVP (Avian); Natalie Antinoff, DVM, ABVP (Avian); Rick Jordan, aviculturist; and Matt Schmit, of the Houston Zoo. They were joined by 38 vendors which ranged from toy makers and pet industry representatives to jewelry makers. The conference sponsor this year was KAYTEE.
Activity at the hotel began on the afternoon of Thursday, Jan. 27. National Parrot Rescue and Preservation Foundation (NPRPF) members, volunteers and vendors arrived to decorate and set up. By the end of the evening the hotel lobby and convention center had been transformed into Parrot Central.
Friday began with a presentation by Dr. Jeleen Briscoe.
Dr. Briscoe is a Veterinary Medical Officer/Avian Specialist for the Animal Care Emergency Programs of the USDA/APHIS. She has been making the rounds to all the bird conferences over the last year. She seeks dialogue and input from all parties interested in birds as the United States government begins the regulation creation phase of implementing the Animal Welfare Act. Dr. Briscoe has graciously faced skeptical audiences, and she understands the trepidation that many feel with the encroachment of government into aviculture. Ultimately she seeks a dialogue so the regulations will end up being fair to all parties,and the agency understands that it is not creating regulations that would cause the interested parties to be overwhelmed or overburdened. She seeks practical guidance in constructing the rules with which we will all eventually have to live.
Following Dr. Briscoe, the "All About Parrots" panel discussion convened. This is one of the most interesting and enlightening pleasures of every Parrot Festival. All the presenters speaking at the conference are assembled in one panel to answer questions from the attendees-anything goes. ~estions are submitted in writing to a moderator, who then organizes and poses them to the panel. Some questions are directed at specific individuals, but everyone on the panel is allowed to contribute to the discussion. This often leads to very detailed and revealing answers from the panel members. There have been moments of insightful connections between different points of view that have surprised and enriched panelists and attendees alike.
After lunch, the proceedings continued with a talk from the Rev. LoraKim Joyner titled, "Human Dimensions of Parrot Conservation." After engaging in parrot conservation as a veterinarian and human support consultant for a span of 25 years in Mesoamerica, most notably in Guatemala, she assembled a tool kit that provides a wide variety of resources that conservation teams may utilize to support the necessary human dimensions of their work. She provided an overview of these resources as applied to specific ongoing parrot conservation efforts so that participants may choose strategies that address issues in their conservation projects. These strategies answer questions regarding why the human equation is so important in conservation projects and how the many factors of human life such as religion, world view, and spirituality come to play long before concrete actions can be taken toward conservation.
The afternoon continued with Barbara Heidenreich. Ms.
Heidenreich has made a career of assisting people in making their avian relationships a success. In her talk, "A Good Start to A Good Bird: Raising and Training a Great Companion Parrot," Ms. Heidenreich takes on the question of Parrots and appropriateness. One of the most overly stated/under substantiated claims for years now is that parrots aren't appropriate pets. They are said to be too difficult for which to care and are deprived of a good and happy life because of their proximity to their human companions. Ms. Heidenreich takes this notion headon. She details the critical developmental periods of a bird's life and how steps taken during this time can go far toward improving our relationships with our birds. She also focuses on telling the difference between cute, critical, and core behaviors and how we can use and reinforce each of the different types to improve the relationships between our avian friends and ourselves.