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Foster Parrots, Ltd.
History

In a small pottery studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts worked a potter. Spending many hours alone the proprietor felt that a companion animal would bring something that only another living being could add. Having spent countless hours in pet shops, after considering the different options available and being somewhat over-enamored with tropical and exotic animals, I, Marc Johnson, decided that a parrot would be the perfect choice. I did my research, read everything available, visited many different stores, asked questions and played with all the cute, cuddly babies. I then picked up a copy of the classified ads and, without too much trouble, found what I was looking for.

Blue and Gold Macaw
Must sell due to divorce.
$500.00

I rolled the coins in my spare change jar and headed out to find Wally. Kept in a cage only 3 feet tall by two feet wide, I was sure I could do better for this bird, and so I put a down payment on Wally and went home to renovate a small room into a habitat for him.

It was not to be long before I was to experience a pivotal moment in my enlightenment to the  difficulties parrots face in captivity. Later that week when I went to pick up Wally, I would make my first rescue when a friend of the woman selling Wally asked me if I would take her Mitred Conure, Bill. I did not understand the impact this first rescue would have on me, but it was to be the first of many such experiences and would lead me to develop the philosophy that I now have, one small step at a time.

I had not only fallen victim to human nature by being ignorant of the true nature of parrots, but I had also been hoodwinked by the pet trade into believing that these creatures made good pets, were easy to care for and that the keeping of the very symbol of freedom as a pet was cool.

Over the next few years I would grow to feel increasingly guilty about the wholly inadequate life I was giving my dear bird friends, and it only got worse as I realized that I could never do enough to give them the life they were born to. The one single difference between myself and the thousands of others I would meet who bought a bird on impulse was that I would not abandon the responsibility I had taken on and I would strive to address the issue in a public forum to inform and educate. My fate was sealed, I could not turn my back on this issue.

As a business open to the public I soon began to have customers come into the shop and tell me of "a friend" who has "one of those," pointing to Wally and Bill, and that their friend doesn't want "it" any more or that "it" was kept in the basement or back room. "Would you take it?" As the months went by, more and more people began to come in with unwanted birds. The first few years saw only a few dozen birds, and it was fairly easy to find homes for them, but as time went by and I started to understand the complexities of parrot care, I began to develop the protocols that would define Foster Parrots' adoption policy.

From the start we parted ways with the pet trade, a position that would bring us many enemies. The fact that so many people were willing to give away something they had paid a lot of money for suggested we may all be headed for serious problems in the future.

Moving to Rockland, Massachusetts, in 1994 to establish a teaching studio also offered me a chance to increase my efforts in parrot rescue and the saying, "If you build it, they will come" rang true as people learned that there was space for their unwanted parrot here in the upper floor of the barn, which then served as a sanctuary. As time passed more birds came and the pottery students were soon kicked out of the 750 square foot lower barn floor to make room for what was to become an onslaught of unwanted birds.

In 1999 Foster Parrots, Ltd was established as a tax-exempt corporation and the rest, as they say, is history.

For 11 years during this time Sinead O'Conure was one of my companions and the inspiration for the line drawing that served as Foster Parrots' original logo. Sinead suffered irreparable liver damage when playing on a lawn that had recently been treated with pyrethrum-based insecticides and died at the age of 11 in 2002.

All of us here at Foster Parrots hope to continue the advocacy on behalf of the parrots in captivity, none of whom deserve such an insufficient life as captives.

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