A little more than a year ago, we began working on a project to create a centralized and organized online community of cockatoo people and their birds, with the principle goal being the establishment of caretaker succession plans: agreements between people that would ensure safe and secure next homes for cockatoos in the event of the current caretakers’ illness, death, or any other situation that required rehoming of the bird. The idea was that by setting up these agreements well in advance of an actual rehoming, there would be fewer cockatoos ending up in bad situations due to a lack of plans.
In the aftermath of the tragedy at the Cockatoo Sanctuary and Rescue last month, there has been a lot of talk within the parrot community about making plans, making sure that people have people to check on them, and measures to help prevent birds from suffering when their caretaker is incapacitated in some way. We feel that advocating for better oversight of rescue and sanctuary facilities is important, but we also feel that a stronger connection and communication among cockatoo people — with focus on helping and supporting birds and people — would be of tremendous value.
The network is not intended to create legally binding arrangements. We are not lawyers and do not have either the legal authority or knowledge to make those claims. But the hope is that the current caretakers’ directives would be followed by persons responsible for carrying them out. And we are sharing legal guidelines and recommendations related to caregivers and birds.
One of the other functions of this online community is to maintain caretaker histories for cockatoos. It would be really valuable to be able to look at a bird’s bio and see when he or she lived in a particular facility or household and in what city, state, and country. We are aware that these details are not always known or available, but we want to inspire people to keep more detailed information and document as much of the birds’ histories as possible.
4the2s (For the ‘Toos) is our pilot program, and is focused exclusively on cockatoos so that the scope remains manageable at this stage. Anyone can join the network, but the only birds on the platform will be cockatoos. It is part of a larger strategy which is in the design stage to include four more separate networks, for African Greys, Eclectus Parrots, Macaws, and Amazons. It is the foundation of a nonprofit organization focused entirely on supporting parrots and their caretakers, at the individual or institutional level. The program is intended to supplement, not replace the excellent work being done by rescue and sanctuary organizations.
