Maybe this is grim, idk, but certain baby animals have stopped being cute to me. Well, it's less that they aren't physically cute, but their presence fills me with unease. Particularly baby parrots, puppies, and kittens. I don't feel the same joy I used to. Now I can't help but

wonder how many will be repeatedly rehomed, discarded, abandoned, or worse when they stop being cute. How many will not be seen as individuals, but as an object that loses its use when it becomes too old or misbehaves.

I wish people didn't view adult animals as broken or used.

I wish people would be just as excited about getting a fully grown dog, cat, bird, or other companion animal as they are with the baby versions. A life doesn't stop being a life with age.

There's so many animals in shelters that need homes, and yet we keep bringing new ones

into the world.

I know people don't always like to hear it, but please consider adoption. Please consider any option that doesn't increase demand for more animals when we already have so many in need.

As a bird person I see SO MANY posts of "look at this baby sun conure I'm bringing home in a couple weeks!" Or "look at this just weaned indian ring neck I got!" and often this is accompanied by "this is my first bird!" Or "can I get some advice on keeping them?" and it's like..

How long until we see a "I'm sorry but my bird is too loud/messy/bitey/aggressive/demanding and I need to rehome them."

Which, I'm not trying to shame people for rehoming or surrendering an animal to a rescue - you gotta do what you gotta do - but also the sheer amount that

this happens is a problem. Because other people are going out and also looking for babies - not the adult bird that's now seen as "second hand." It's an endless cycle - particularly for parrots, and it's resulted in overfull rescues, birds tossed to the wild to die, etc.

Do you like my birds? Almost all of them came from other homes, even Mango. Mango, who is so sweet and 100% as valuable as any baby sun conure, with just as much personality and love, did not live with me for the first 5 years of her life.

Please consider older animals.

Like, I got some iffy comments online when I took in Queso and said that he was 17. I mean... he's still a living thing.

I really need to get out of these facebook groups. "This is the baby green cheek I'm bringing home soon" "just put a deposit down on a five week old sun conure"

Like a good portion of the posts are like this...

I feel like people will be disappointed that I'm such a bird

person and this is my opinion on things, but... I'm sorry, this isn't good.