Why don't people read the paper!

[avinet]

When we had out shop we would often get found birds bought into the shop for us to look after and to find their owner. And we would religiously advertise in the local paper - always 4 days including Saturday - and it was amazing how rarely a bird would be claimed. Probably no more than a quarter of these found birds would be reunited with their owner. So often they were really nice birds, and sometimes not a "cheap" budgie or cockatiel but expensive birds as well with lovely temperament.

So many owners never even bothered to look at the lost and found for a week or two after the bird went missing, and the ones that actually put an ad in the paper were a very small minority. I've never understood it - the two times over the last 20 years we lost a bird we advertised solidly for weeks afterwards (unfortunately without luck) - yet the majority can't be bothered even checking the ads on line never mind buying a paper.

Anyway what brought on this rant is that we currently have an absolutely gorgeous male Alexandrine at present. Beautiful nature and a real people bird that has obviously been well looked after, very used to eating human food at the table, and whose only fault is a rather high pitched shout when he sees someone eating and wants out of his cage to share. He was found about 2 weeks ago and handed into a vet who doesn't do birds so they passed him on to us to look after. He is on my shoulder at present very happy and relaxed and beak grinding.

We have advertised for 4 days this week and not a call about him - apart from a desperate Eclectus owner who lost his bird 2 months ago. The final add is in tomorrow, we will keep him a further week, and if that doesn't produce an owner we will have to look to find him a good home - with 11 Alexes already in the house we won't be keeping him, tempting as it is.

cheers,

Mike

[gypsy]

I think many 'younger' people don't bother with newspapers (internet/tv the printed paper is old news when you buy it )

If I lost a loved pet the newspapers would be the first place to advertise / look. Also the free to air spots our local radio station does, then vet calls, local corner shop, etc.

He sounds like a lovely bird, hoping his owners do the 'weekend' paper read, if not you find him a wonderful loving home.

Oh and good on you for 'fostering' him !

Sally

[twr]

Poor baby. I hope his owners do find him.

Butch (lorikeet) escaped once, but I was lucky. I think it would be the worst thing, never knowing what happened to your escaped bird. I can't imagine not searching for him.

I wonder if they are just looking in the wrong place or direction? Did the bird fly further from its home than they thought possible & if so they are looking in the wrong local newspapers, the wrong vets & putting up their own notices in the wrong suburbs?

Then again, maybe they don't care enough. Sad.

[flossy]

Goodluck Mike......but I'm with you. People rely to heavily on technology and mobile phones these days. I also have lost birds, and I advertised, bought the papers, radio, wires, vets, letter box drops, just about everything you could think of.....all to no avail of course! But I like to think my little birds have all been found and are much loved.

Made me a firm believer in wing clipping I'm afraid......too much heartache for me.....but that's my story!
Goodluck with him anyway....if I was closer, I have a perfect place for him.....

[twr]

That's very sad that you've both lost birds. The "not knowing" must suck.

I feel so lucky that Butch came back and it's made me much more vigilant about clipping the lorikeet's wings.

I'm thinking about letting Tinga have flight, to help his confidence. The lorikeets need no confidence booster. They already have too much if it.

But I waffle, back to topic.

I don't understand why people don't use every means available - newspapers, radio, flyers, vets, shelters. There are some sites dedicated to lost and found parrots, so there as well.

Web sites for lost and found parrots
www.911parrotalert.com
www.ParrotAlert.com

[anzac]

I have lost a few canaries out of my aviary but I know that they probably didn't make it past the few first days with the amount of crows, magpies and butcher birds in our area A lady up the rd lost her wierro a few months ago and it flew into next door's massive flame tree. We couldn't get "Charlie" down as he was in a very high branch and this lovely lady sat all day and all night in the back lane way for waiting for him and calling him. (We kept her supplied with tea and nibbles). We hoped he would come down to my aviary for the seed but eventually flew off. She posted signs all over our neighborhood and he was found a few days later a few blocks away. If any of my animals went missing I would fly post, letter drop, scour the local vets anything to get them back. We also recieved a lovely card from her saying Charlie had been found and thanks for the tea and sympathy.

[avinet]

Good news with the lost Alexandrine - his owners called us on Saturday after seeing the ad that day. They had given up on him, being nearly 3 weeks since he escaped, and only bought the Saturday paper the week I was advertising.

They came over Sunday morning and it was very obviously their bird - he was all over the father of the family, kisses etc, I knew from the time he was here that he preferred men rather then women, and he had a deformed toe which they were able to describe on the phone. Turned out his name was Paulie. We clipped his wings while they were here, and I showed them how to do it in the future.

Sp that had a happy ending

cheers,

Mike

[anzac]

Yippee, glad to hear the news Mike but a good warning for all of us.

[mgaggie]

Thats great news Mike

[gypsy]

YAY - So pleased for everyone involved! And yay they did the weekend paper read ))

And well done to you for clipping the wings and showing them how to do it (each to their own on that sensitive subject ) but if Paulie is an escapist that should stop him from future escapes

Very lucky people to have had you look after Paulie, great ending. Has bought a smile to my face this morning.

[twr]

That is fantastic news! I'm so happy for Paulie and his family.

[angelicvampyre]

Great news Mike, so many of my guys I advertise in the local areas but never get anywhere outside of the one lady who rang me said it was her bird even gave me the birds leg ring number and told me that she had let to go to be free...... anyway leg ring was removed, bird microchipped and new home found but I agree once the bird goes out of sight i am not sure how much more people try to find them.

[parrotalert]

Apr 12, 2011 23:17:46 GMT 10 angelicvampyre said:

but I agree once the bird goes out of sight i am not sure how much more people try to find them.

Since i set up and started parrotalert.com late last year, i talk to
so many people desperate to find their lost birds.
Only last week, a guy in the UK last his macaw on the Sunday
and placed a report on our site and by the Monday it was home
after someone searched on-line and found the report on our site.
Younger people are more connected with social networks and
the internet and there is a decline in newspaper circulations
throughout the world. With parrotalert, i've completed the first
phase of twitter and facebook integration. All reports on parrotalert
are pushed out to our facebook country groups, Like
AU and we're just rolling out next phase of auto posting on forum
lost and found sections. Our reports are included in google etc.
It's all about awareness and reaching the wider audience with a
lost/stolen/found report. Currently, everything is so disconnected,
that's we are addressing this. If you lost a bird, just think of the
time you could waste alone on posting to every forum, blog, social
network, when ideally you should be looking for your bird.
Our goal is simple, you post with us and we'll automatically cross
post to as many sites, social networks etc as possible and also
alert our members that reside within that area and we'll keep all
the cross posts synchronised with updates/status.
If we can connect to it, we'll push the alert out to it.
It's starting to show that it's working, it's all about tapping in
to the bird masses to get the word out.
Just think of the time saving then.

[twr]

I heard about your site on another forum. I do think it's a great idea.