Of Parrots and People: The Sometimes Funny, Always Fascinating, and Often Catastrophic Collision of Two Intelligent Species

by Mira Tweti

Overview

There are an estimated 50 million parrots in the United States today. Their intelligence and extraordinary personalities make them beloved members of the families that bring them into their homes.

In Of Parrots and People, award-winning journalist and long-time parrot owner Mira Tweti reveals the complex world of parrots-their astonishing intellect, often-intimate relationships with humans, and, unfortunately, the calamitous practices of the bird industry. Delving into the secret world of the global parrot trade, Tweti documents the forces driving these remarkable creatures to the brink of extinction. A critical addition to the popular shelf of books about animals and their behavior, Of Parrots and People is a startling wake-up call in the tradition of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143115755
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/28/2009
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mira Tweti is an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker. Her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and The Village Voice, and has helped pass legislation and launch national awareness about parrot issues. Her exposé for the LA Times Magazine on the U.S. parrot trade won an investigative journalism Genesis Award from the Humane Society of the United Sates for significant stories on animal welfare. Tweti is also the author of a parrot- welfare children's book, Here, There and Everywhere, heralded by Dr. Jane Goodall as “a masterpiece.” Tweti lives in Los Angeles with ZaZu, an adopted parrot.

Table of Contents

Introduction xiii

Chapter 1 Bird Brains 1

Chapter 2 Parrots and Parronts 23

Chapter 3 No Joy: The Crisis of Unwanted Birds 50

Chapter 4 Naturalized Psittacines: America's Avian Immigrants 79

Chapter 5 From the Wild Life to Captive Breeders: The Legal Parrot Trade in the United States 98

Chapter 6 Death Row and a Death Row Reprieve: The Notorious Scudder's Parrot Depot and the Stellar Cockatoo Rescue 131

Chapter 7 A Bird in a Cage Is Worth Two in the Bush: The Illegal Trapping and Wild Harvesting of Parrots Around the Globe 148

Chapter 8 Smuggling 175

Chapter 9 The Invisible Man 210

Chapter 10 A Brazilian Journey with Global Parrot Conservationist Charles Munn 231

Chapter 11 The Journey Continues to the Rarest Macaws in the World, Lear's and Spix's 274

Chapter 12 Repercussions, Ramifications, and Solutions 292

Acknowledgments 301

Author's Note 305

Index 307

What People are Saying About This

Julie Zickefoose

Of Parrots and People is a long, loud, heartrending squawk for the rights of the captive parrot: a vibrantly social higher intelligence usually condemned for life to solitary confinement. Its only crime: having brains and beauty in equal measure. This is a book to change hearts and minds, a long-overdue call to enlightenment to anyone who ever called a parrot ‘just a bird.' (Julie Zickefoose, naturalist, artist and author of Letters from Eden)

Wayne Pacelle

Mira Tweti's beautifully argued and meticulously researched book is, without question, the most important book published on the state of our relationship with parrots. It is required reading for anyone interested in animal welfare, environmental issues, and changing society's relationship to the natural world and the creatures in it. (Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO, The Human Society of the United States)

Marc Bekoff

Of Parrots and People is a winner on numerous fronts. Extremely well researched and easy to read, Mira Tweti's book offers a comprehensive view of what it's like to be a parrot in a human-dominated world. Blending solid scientific research with compelling personal stories, this fascinating book offers yet more reasons why we must increase our compassionate footprint now, not later when it may be more convenient to do so. The next time someone tells me I'm a birdbrain, I'll wink, smile, and walk away having felt that I've been royally complimented. I'll share this book widely - it is that good. (Marc Bekoff, University of Colorado; author of The Emotional Lives of Animals)

Frans de Waal

This book conveys the immeasurable joy of parrots as companion animals, but also serves as a warning to those who may underestimate the emotional demands of these brainy birds. Mira Tweti provides an engagingly written, passionate plea to take the parrot-human relationship very seriously. (Frans de Waal, Ph.D., author of Our Inner Ape)

From the Publisher

The most important book published on the state of our relationship with parrots."
-Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO, Humane Society of the United States

Jane Goodall

Parrots can not only learn to talk but understand the meaning of many words for they are highly intelligent. Some are clad in glorious plumage. Not surprising that they have long been sought after as pets or research subjects and Mira Tweti shares engaging stories about individual parrots and their dedicated owners. But she also tells of the multitude of parrots suffering in captivity, and how the pet trade has brought many species to the brink of extinction in the wild. Informative, compassionate and very entertaining, Of Parrots and People is a book for animal lovers everywhere.

Joanna Burger

Tweti weaves a wonderful tale of people and parrots that will make you laugh, weep and applaud the wonderful wit and devilry of parrots. (Joanna Burger, author of The Parrot Who Owns Me)

Editorial Reviews

The most important book published on the state of our relationship with parrots."
-Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO, Humane Society of the United States

From the Publisher

Trenchant analysis woven together with colorful personal narratives from expert scientists, conservationists, eccentric pet owners and amateur animal rescuers reveals the deleterious consequences of mankind's penchant for keeping exotic birds. Tweti (Here, There and Everywhere) begins by debunking the myth of the "bird brain," citing the story of Alex, an African grey research parrot who was proven to have the cognitive skills of a toddler, not uncommon for his breed. The author's research illuminates the staggering variety of the thousands of species of parrots and indicts the individuals who breed, sell and smuggle birds to feed consumer demand. ("Parrots are a luxury item, deprived of liberty purely for human amusement. No one needs to keep a parrot.") She discusses the unacknowledged crisis of a species being hunted to extinction despite the frequency with which they are abandoned by pet owners. Tweti's account is factual and passionate-she likens even the prettiest bird cage to "a slave's shackles"-but she makes it clear where the science ends and her opinions begin. Tweti's work is a valuable resource of astonishing thoroughness, richness and accessibility-despite the occasional ideological inconsistency.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

Parrots are the most endangered group of birds, mostly owing to humans' desire to keep them as pets and the demands placed on their habitats. Expanding on her award-winning Los Angeles Times Magazine exposé, "Plenty To Squawk About," journalist and avian advocate Tweti has written a comprehensive and compassionate account of the parrot-human relationship. She uncovers the alarming trend of people relinquishing these animals because of their highly intelligent and highly sociable natures, which make them difficult to keep in confinement. She also takes us to Mexico, where black market shops sell endangered parrot species; to the Brazilian outback, where we meet Charles Munn, an unorthodox environmentalist who saves these birds as his life's work; and to São Paolo, where endangered Lear's and Spix's macaws are held in captivity in the hope that they will breed. This eye-opening report, which reads like a gripping adventure tale, is strongly recommended for academic and public libraries.
—Diana Hartle

Library Journal

Informative account of a bright and complex bird alarmingly mistreated by humans. Parrots have long been popular, writes Tweti, who has profiled the species in media ranging from newspaper articles and documentary films to children's books (Here, There and Everywhere: The Story of Sreeeeeeeet the Lorikeet, 2008). The Greeks ate them as a delicacy, the Egyptians used their images to decorate pharaohs' tombs, wealthy Europeans and Americans have always treasured their companionship. With the affection of a parrot owner, the author describes the beguiling qualities of these little-studied birds, including their beauty, intelligence, ability to talk and the close bonds they can form with people. However, most of Tweti's lively and discursive book focuses on the many ways in which humans neglect or abuse parrots. She notes that people purchasing the birds seldom realize that parrots are unusually demanding wild animals: They squawk, bite and much prefer to live with their kind in the wild. Advocacy groups advise against having them as pets. Many owners prove unable to tolerate the birds; finding no market for older parrots, they pass them on to friends (the average parrot has seven homes in its first ten years) or set them free to fend for themselves. The result has been "a crisis of unwanted parrots" in the United States, with growing numbers of birds winding up in the nation's avian rescue centers. At the same time, some 10,000 breeders, with little training and virtually no regulation, continue to raise parrots (often in cramped factory farms) and sell more than one million of them annually. Interviewing owners, breeders, rescue operators and others, Tweti brings readers deep insidethe worlds of illegal parrot trapping, harvesting and smuggling, including visits with federal agents along the San Diego-Mexico border, where parrots are smuggled into the United States in car taillights. A sad story of lovely wild creatures held captive for our amusement. Agent: Jandy Nelson/Manus & Associates Literary Agency

Kirkus Reviews