New "Dr K Exotic Vet" show

[Bluebonnet Herp]

I'd like to put in my two cents regarding her being against owning exotic animals and it making her a hypocrite. A friend of mine is a parrot lady. She's not just into parrots, parrots are her entire life, her whole being revolves around them and I don't exaggerate even a tiny bit. She pretty much lives at a parrot rescue, has several of her own, she does talks and educates, she brings her parrots out for pulic viewing (again, education). Her entire being is dedicated to parrots. And she is 100%, completely against owning parrots and thinks they shouldn't be captive ever, at all.

It seems hypocritical, yes, but hear the reasoning. Her view is that people often do not and can not give a parrot what they need to live happy, healthy lives. They don't have the time for a bird with a knife for a mouth that will act like a very destructive 2 year old for its 80 year lifespan. They don't have the patience to deal with a screaming bird. They aren't home enough to give it enough out of cage time. They don't have the money to give it a big enough cage or the diet or specialized vet care it needs. And so they suffer, because of poor husbandry, and they start to have a whole slew of problems and pluck and become aggressive and all that, they get released to die, they get abandon, they get shut into cages alone in empty spare rooms.

But, parrots are always going to be a thing. They're always going to be popular. So instead, she takes in the ones she can rescue and give a wonderful, full life to, and she dedicates the rest of her time to educating and helping where she can to give the already captive birds the best life they can have, and speaking out about people adopting pet birds on a whim and urging people to reconsider, because parrot mills are the ones who profit, etcetc. I think in a way it's similar to Dr. K, that she feels against having exotics as pets, but as long as someone's already owning them it's not like they can be released, so you might as well do the best you can by them. It doesn't make it okay for her to tell her clients that to their face, as obviously if they're taking it to the vet they're trying to take good care of it, but just a possible thought behind the mentality.

I do agree that some of her knowledge has me raising an eyebrow. I won't argue there!

Anyways... Sorry for the novel. How's that for a first post introduction? lol!

I'm sure someone could say similar thing about cats or dogs, or even the myriad of reptiles out there, beginner or advanced. There are numerous cats, dogs, ball pythons, bearded dragons, etc that improperly cared for, that are neglected, that have health issues because of improper husbandry, and there are numerous people out there who are dumb and should not own such animals. But does that mean they don't belong in captivity at all, whatsoever? No. It just means that neglect and bad care is inevitable. Why? Our world isn't perfect, and it never will be. There is plenty of grim and negative things that happen on this planet, and there always will be until the world's end.
But there are things that us dedicated animal lovers could do to reduce such bad cases, through responsible moderation, reasonable regulation, and animal education, and there are plenty of animals that can be helped by running or supporting rescues. There will always be bad in this world, but there's also plenty we can do to counter it with good. It's just the way this world works.
So should the keeping of exotic pets be condemned just because of all the irresponsible keepers out there? No. Should we just allow people to irresponsible keepers? No. What we can do is continue to be the good guys, and to continue to educate people and advocate responsible animal keeping practices, and have our impact by saving animals without taking people's rights away.