| Of Parrots and People: The Sometimes Funny, Always Fascinating, and Often Catastrophic Collision of Two Intelligent Species | 
 enlarge | Author: Mira Tweti
Publisher: Viking Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 43875
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 0670019690
Dewey Decimal Number: 636.6865
EAN: 9780670019694
ASIN: 0670019690
Publication Date: August 14, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: SATISFACTION GUARANTEED! NEW Book! May have remainder mark. Most orders ship within 1 BUSINESS DAY with ORDER CONFIRMATION.
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Product Description
There are an estimated 50 million parrots kept as pets the U.S. alone, their numbers surpassed only by dogs and cats, yet these complex creatures are not your typical domesticated animal, and they remain a mystery to many. Most people dont know that parrots score at the level of 3-to-5 year olds on human intelligence tests. Nor that they can live to 100 years or more. Nor that pound for pound parrots are worth more on the black market than cocaine. Their startling beauty, social sophistication, and uncanny ability to bond with humans have made parrots sought-after pets, but few people realize how fragile and endangered many parrot species have become.
In Of Parrots and People, award-winning journalist and parrot expert, Mira Tweti, reveals the world of a family of birds that is far more complex and advanced than weve acknowledged. Tweti relates stunning scientific findings on the intelligence, personality, and rich lives of parrots that challenge our most widespread and flawed assumptions about non-primates. And she explores the intense and often humorous emotional connections these birds form not just with their flockmates, but with the parronts (as some parrot parents call themselves) who keep them as pets, often pampering them as they do children.
Of Parrots and People also takes on the much larger, serious issues of animal welfare that are the unfortunate consequences of the bird boom of the last few decades. Despite the high demand for them, many parrot species are endangered in the wild from rampant trapping and habitat destruction, while those in captivity are quickly becoming the fastest growing category of unwanted pets, living lives of neglect or abuse. Avian rescuers cant handle the number of birds that need help, and the Humane Society of the U.S. is advocating euthanasia rather than warehousing birds that will outlive their caretakers. Yet unregulated bird breeders continue to put over a million young birds on the market each year from parrot mills across the country. Its an untenable situation of cruelty, especially for such an evolved and intelligent species, and its just one of the many newsworthy topics that make Of Parrots and People just as hard-hitting as it is soft-hearted. Tweti tirelessly follows the parrot trail around the globe, from the living rooms and pet stores of America, to hotbeds of illegal trade in Mexico. She examines threats of avian flu, and takes a first hand look at encouraging progress in eco-tourism that may be our only way to protect these stunning species from being hunted to extinction.
Comprehensive in scope and passionately written, Of Parrots and People is a unique and vivid addition to popular works on animals and their behavior, and an important new voice in the burgeoning environmental and conservation movement.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 I threw it away November 27, 2008
The writing in this book was so bad I did something I've never done before. I threw the book in the trash. Recycling would have been too good of a fate. For example, the opposite of dysfunctional would be functional, not "nondysfunctional" as used by the author.
I may have kept reading the book if the message was compelling. However, the PETA bias was too much to stomach. Like another reviewer I do not deny that abuse, neglect, and overbreeding occur. The author should realize, however, that problems such as these cannot be solved by constant scolding of everyone who has ever kept birds as companions or bred birds.
The notion, supported by the author, that naturalized (i.e., non-native, invasive, escaped, etc.) parrots are not a threat to native plant and wildlife is just plain wrong. Any professional ecologist could explain why, but instead of discussing data the author just says the birds aren't harming anything.
This book doesn't deserve a longer review.
 Strong research, interesting facts exposed October 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have read this book with keen interest.
Tweti's research is both thorough and factual, and she has traveled to remote areas to uncover little known and discussed facts about the parrot trade (and other species on her way).
I disagree with a comment below stating that this book is written with an animal activist point of view. Whilst the author has strong opinions, her approach allows the reader to discover a side of the pet trade that is not widely known by the average parrot owner. After reading the book, I understand how unsettling this piece could prove for the parrot trade in the US and abroad. However, I also believe the parrot breeders who truly care about their trade will benefit from the facts exposed in Tweti's work. Every parrot deserves for this information to be shared between all animal lovers.
As a parrot owner with little previous knowledge of the actual trade, it has opened my eyes and made me want to take a stand to further protect parrots in the wild, and parrots used for breeding programs. I recommend this book to a wide range of parrot lovers, whether like me you are a proud parrot owner (you will feel even more connected to how your bird feels in your home), to those considering bringing a parrot in their lives (it will expose truths to make you do an educated choice on where your companion comes from, and hopefully you will support the many rescue programs the author exposes), and to the parrot industry types who are clearly divided between those who genuinely care for their birds and those who care primarily for their wallet.
My bird and I both benefited from the information in this book.
Appalling October 12, 2008
0 out of 8 found this review helpful
Would you condone the enslaving of 2-3 year old humans? If you wouldn't, then you shouldn't condone the enslaving of birds with that level of intellegence. I'm convinced, and you will be too, unless you are a breeder with a vested interest in the business of selling birds.
There were entertaining chapters about people who care for their birds and try to give the birds a comfortable and rich life. But it's still slavery. The house slaves in the old South were more comfortable than those that worked in the fields, but they were still slaves, confined to their owner's whims. I was especially struck by the similarity of the accounts of the birds' capture and transport to stories I have read about human trafficking in the nineteenth century. Many humans died then, and many parrots die now.
The condition of the breeding pens and what the birds endure in them especially turned my stomach.
If the buying and selling of exotic birds were banned by federal law in the United States, it wouldn't end the world trade, but it would reduce the demand significantly. (After all, there is still human slavery in the world.) Read the book and consider mailing a letter to your member of Congress.
And yet the author owns a parrot.
You've all heard stories about human children being passed from foster home to foster home, and how screwed up they become. The same is true of parrots as they are passed from owner to owner as "their" human discovers how difficult being around a destructive "terrible two year old" (in intelligence) can be.
Only the chapters on the wild flocks, made up of birds released by accident in the United States, gave me hope. There are too many birds to return to the tropics. Release your birds to the wild. Give them a chance to survive on their own. Some will die, that is true, but some will survive to form flocks and enrich our skies, cities, and forests (what's left of them).
End the slavery. Release your birds.
If there were more stars, you would get them! September 30, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Outstanding! I have to admit that I am taking my time to read it and relishing every page. There is nothing else quite like it on the market, It is long over due! Finally, to have somebody get the courage to address the growing crisis facing parrots in captivity. It is a dark subject, but bringing it out and making it an issue, maybe the first step to prevent neglect and increasing numbers of unwanted parrots . The impossible dream maybe, but society needs to change how we look at caged birds and understand how unnatural confinement is for a creature with wings meant for flying.
This book takes a look into a bird's perspective, like no other. It is straight forward and contains a wealth of knowledge and facts. Everybody can learn something, I know that I am.
The stories are fascinating and amazingly true. Alex, the notorious grey, is a true icon and I still feel sad to know he's gone. He gave new meaning to the word "bird brain" and everything that I read about him, made him just that more incredible and lovable. He not only learned our language to communicate but also showed logic. In the book, it told how Dr. Pepperberg wanted to continue with Alex's lesson, but Alex had enough, was tired and distracted. Dr. Pepperberg would barter one more hour for a bribe of pizza. But Alex, held out for more and also wanted to be on his favorite perching area, he referred to as shoulder. I recall her saying, ok.. Alex... one hour, pizza and shoulder, then Alex agreed. The author talked about the size of a bird's brain in relation to computers and how now adays they are capable of doing so much in a fraction of the size they used to be. Brain size may not be a true measurement of intelligence and Alex was living proof.
I can only imagine the amount of time and research that went into compiling this book and I'm sure that it wasn't for the fame or the money that could be made, but out of pure love for parrots. It's a wonderful contribution to the parrot world. Thank you Mira Tweti.I pray that it somehow can reach the ones who still just "don't get it" and will treat parrots with more respect and allow them to behave more naturally.
Pet birds are often referred as "caged birds" or captive birds. It's only words to us, but the meaning of captive... "imprisonment, jail, restraint, slavery, bondage..." is an everyday reality for most parrots.
 A Little Good Information, a Lot of PETA Propaganda September 18, 2008
10 out of 14 found this review helpful
I read Chapters 1 through 4 with interest and found them valuable and entertaining. Chapters 5 through 12 are the usual hysterical, overblown, self-serving tripe that characterizes materials generated by extreme "animal rights" groups. I do not say that there are no abuses in the breeding and marketing of pet birds. There are and they need to be addressed, though they are by no means universal. I do say that playing upon the emotions of kind-hearted, unsuspecting pet lovers is neither ethical nor effective in helping avian victims of ignorance and greed, however effective they may be in extorting funds. Save your money. There are many excellent books about parrots available, such as The Parrot Who Owns Me: The Story of a Relationship, for the emotional and spiritual side of parrot ownership; and Parrots For Dummies (For Dummies (Pets)) for the nuts and bolts of parrot care and nurturing.
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