I got home yesterday afternoon to find a little note on my door to call the RSPCA. I do so not sure why I had to do this, there was no information on the little slip of paper. Anyway it seems that someone had reported me for having more then 6 birds in a small cage.

 

This is the size of my cage

 

 

It has a few more perches in it and some fresh branches oh and have 4 birds not 6 or more!

 

So I waited for the RSPCA guy to come out, he came in and asked me a bunch of questions. I had to prove that I have had the cage longer then 24 hours, *** I even showed him my broken cage (which this one replaced and Dad and I are trying to fix so I have a back up cage)

 

I showed him my vet accounts for all the trips that I have had down there and the test results that they give me after the inital checks. I gave him my vets number and said to call them.

 

He then wanted to see how my birds are with a physical check. Flame was fine, Blue did not like him and got lose and flew to the high perch I have in the study and sat there and refused to come down. When it came to Harley, I explained Harleys issues and requested that we did not handle him as he had already been handled once this week. Nope that was not good enough for Mr RSPCA so I had to catch Harley for him, he then gives me a lecture about how Harley is a little underweight. I explained that he was an older bird and I was seeing the vet about this. Harley bit him.

 

Mozzie was another issue, she freaked out when he tried to catch her, I finally asked him to leave the room, got Blue on my hand and got her to step up onto it. When he came back in she flipped, he did manage to examined her and expressed concern over her wing, explained about the vet yet again and said that I was happy for him to call them about this. Mozzie bit him something cronic, drew blood!

 

He gave me a lecture about wing clipping and wanted to know what I had done to Harley to stop him from flying.

 

my answers

 

1) Harley does not fly any more, he has not for years, expalined the situation

2) Blue does fly

3) Flame has all her feather clipped outside of the outside one on each wing, I did not do this she came like that

4) Mozzie had had one wing clipped badly, I got the other one clipped to even her out, she has since broken wing feathers nothing I can do about this but treat them.

 

I will now be getting follow up checks. I am so annoyed it is not funny. I know it was the lady in number 2 as after he left she came out to talk to him, I could hear her asking why he was leaving the birds in my care. I have been crying about this all last night. I know that I am not the best Budgie owner, I know that I have done things wrong but I am trying.

What a terrible experience for you I think you had all the right answers and proof to back up what you say. Has the lady in number two visited you at any time to have what she thought was a good reason to dob you in or was she just being silly and troublesome ? People !!

The RSPCA really annoys me. They are happy for pet shops and the like to sell sick and injured animals, and house them in tiny enclosures until sale to God knows who, and not respond to numerous complaints from the public, yet they respond to a single complaint from a nosy neighbour who has nothing better to do. Really bugs me

 

Good luck with it, hopefully they go after those who are keeping their animals inhumanely and don't bug you.

How awful .

Silly nosey neighbours, who don't even have their facts straight.

 

I'm sure you are a great budgie owner and eventually the RSPCA will see that.

How horrible. I can't believe they check all the staff you say. They should be able to see if you are taking good care of them. What would they do if one of the budgies got a heard attack from being handled by a stranger !!! He should be reported then

I cannot imagine what would they say if they've seen some of the breeder's aviaries here in czech. Some of them have birds in with pigs, or very messy aviaries, etc. But no one here will come and check it, if I call them

I had a similar experience but with council.

I have eastern rosellas visit my place all the time because i have a big water pot in the yard , im always changing the water to keep it fresh and the local birds are always in it . So with all the new building going on around the area i thought i would put up a hollow log in a huge paperbark tree, as there has been a lot of trees being knocked down and those pesky indian myna birds are steeling there nesting sites .

I make this big box a two foot hollow log entrance, climb half way up the tree with rope and proceed to haul this box into position , 20 min later finished climd down , Feelin pretty happy with myself .

Three weeks goes by the cock rosella has been hanging around a bit and i receive a letter in the mail with a please explain as to why i have poisoned the tree in my yard and a court date penciled in if i wasnt going to reply within a certain time .

I was shocked not knowing what the letter was about and thinking they had the wrong address.

Rang council up and they said that they had a witness watch me poision the tree , at this point I was laughing at the guy on the other end , he said that an inspector would come out and i had to be there to meet him .

Well the day came (took time of work) , Inspector took one look at the tree and asked why i would poision a tree that i had built a huge octagonal seat from hardwood around , my reply, I wouldnt your wasteing my time, : he then proceed to my avairy and told me that i needed permission from council to have an avairy more then 10 square metres , I never knew ,my avairy is 6 metres x 4 metres with three flights and a breeding room on the end , I had over 80 birds at the time and the council guy said that i was only allowed 20 without registration,

Still looking into it all at the moment but its a worry .

It just takes one sticky beak neighbour and the trouble it causes when really they should mind their own business.

Goodluck with yours!

Im still waiting for an apoligie from mine.

Goodness, me. Sometimes the RSPCA really annoys me. I mean they mean well. But half the time the staff don't actually know anything about the proper care of pets. For instance if you have an old animal that is skinny because it was old, they would say you are neglecting it. We have a neighbour who calls out the SPCA on any stupid little things. Once they called because our sheep were lying down too much!!! How stupid is that. Another time they called out the SPCA because "our dog was barking" too much. It was actually the other neighbour's dog that was barking heaps grrr. We don't know for sure who it is calling them, but we have our suspicions. Walked past their property to see that they had hardly any grazing for their cattle!!! Call the SPCA out on them some time and get them back for it.

Only thing is the SPCA have to follow up on every claim they've heard.

Don't worry, you are a good budgie owner.

People who assume that they know the best care possible really bug me and they never take the effort to actually go and investigate first before passing judgement. I suggest you approach this woman and talk to her.

I honestly can not believe that they waiste time like that and stress your poor birds out.I'm sure all will be well as you are a terrific owner and care for your birds.RSPCA need a good kick up the butt as far as i"m concerned as I still have dogs next door that are not properly looked after and don't go knocking on my neighbours door at all.

Oh MY goodness I just read this. Who do you know would have called on the RSPCA on you? It would have to be someone that lives around you and hears the birds and maybe thinks they are loud. I don't understand what concern if they are flighted or not and why he had to handle any of them. How do you know he knows how to hold them correct...as you can see I am very upset and I wasn't even there. There are HORRIBLE pet shops out there and this is what they do with their time

Edited December 7, 200717 yr by Elly

this makes me so mad

some neighbours have nothing else better to do then to complain. l have one of those type of neighbour who is like that, but l just ignore her.

it is too bad that you have to go through all this. the RSPCA should be doing something about all those awful pet stores instead of going after responsible and loving pet owners who have disgruntle neighbours

How completely ridiculous!!! Since when is it a bad thing to have your birds wings clipped? And why in the world would the inspector need to check out each of your birds the way he did. Surely he could see they had a good spacious cage, perches, toys, etc. That alone should be enough to see the birds are happy and healthy!

Perhaps you should put in a complaint about the RSPCA, saying that they unnessecarily overstressed your birds etcetc

You could call the general headquarters and ask them procedures or for the guidelines...

Thanks for your kind words.

 

Yes I know it was number 2, I confronted her about it on the weekend and say said that she has seen me with the birds in a "tiny" cage. Well yes that would be my quarra/travel cage she would have seen me take them to and from the vets.

 

I complained to the RSPCA, I get that they have to check up on reports like this but personal belief over wing clipping is not something that should have come up. Personally I don't like it but I have had it done in the past, other people are all for it, it's the way it goes.

 

As for handling the birds, I explained why I did not want this to happen and the fact that he did it anyway. grrrrrr. The lady on the main switch said (and I quote)

 

If you had explained to the officer about Harleys issues then I am sure that he would not have felt the need to handle him, I am sure it was a stressful situation for you but if we do not have all the information then our officers can not write up an informed report.

 

It just really annoys me, I did expalin why I did not want Harley handled it just really annoys me that he did not listen.

 

On the plus side my Mum got stockings for all my babies that have honey sticks and new toys in all of them

 

Lets hope this is the last I hear of it!

yes lets hope so...

if she was so concerned about your birds she should have ASKED you first and talked to you about what she ways

I hate when people assume

I think she just does not like me or Birds. Found out that some wild birds had nested in her rose bush but she wanted to cut the rose bush back so to put the nest on the ground... with three chicks in it! :nest:

 

I picked it up and put it in our rose bush, I figured the parents would not come back but Mum said to give them 24 hours, this was yesterday and then when I checked before coming to work they all seemed to be alive, if they don't look 100% when I get home I will have to take them in and hand raise them.

what type of birds are they? I know some wild birds just can't be hand fed there is so much invovled unlike budgies.

Sounds like she hates life

You would need to take them to a vet or shelter rather than rear them yourself. As far as i know it's illegal to hold native animals for more than 24 (or maybe 48) hours unless you're a wild life carer. :nest:

 

I think the RSPCA should have taken your complaint more seriously. It doesn't sound like that man investigating you was very professional in allowing his own opinions to affect his judgement (wing clipping). I still find it weird that he had to handle any of the budgies at all. So many people keep budgies locked up in cages permanently, but by RSPCA standards as long as they had the minimum required space, a clean environment and an adequate diet that would be acceptable.

I'm just wondering if the officer would handle all your birds if you had like 30 of them :rip: :hap: , I think he would change his mind after a couple...

Just curious, how old are you? Could that have played a factor?

Wild birds are fine, their mum found them so them seem happy. Never thought of the legal ramifications, we always did this when we lived on the farm.

 

As for the lady at number two, I have put in an offical complaint about her and also put in a complaint about the RSPCA inspector, not that I think it will go far.

 

As for my Age I am 27.

Edited December 11, 200717 yr by Angelic Vampyre

Thats weird. I've never heard of anything like that...

 

I wonder why they have those rules. Maybe they just make em up so they have something to do in the meantime. (Laughing out loud).

Gesh, its not like your a "kid" for them to bully around

I cannot believe they treated you like that. You can obviously see that they are well cared for budgies and hey you are a regular at the vet. tHE rspca IS ALL WELL AND GOOD, BUT IS THERE NOT A *** OF A LOT WORSE CASES OF ANIMAL MISTREATMENT THAT THEY could be following up.

 

I would go next door and just ask the lady in number 2 what exactly gives her the impression that your budgies are not well looked after. I could not go without confronting her, nicelly about it. There must be some reason that she thinks this. She is probably horribly missinformed about budgie care and has no idea really.

 

Good luck and I hope they leave you alone from now on.

 

Hugs

kathym1977

Have you had any follow up visits from the SPCA since?