Providing life-changing care and environment for special needs avian species in Minnesota.
Cookie and Ernie remind us of something important about parrot welfare: many parrots benefit deeply from the company of other birds.
In the wild, parrots are highly social animals. They spend much of their lives with flock mates or bonded partners, communicating, foraging, resting, preening, learning, and navigating the world together. Their lives are built around social connection.
Humans can provide love, safety, and care, but we cannot fully replace another bird. We do not speak their language of posture, feather movement, contact calls, mutual preening, or shared routines. A bird companion, when safe and appropriate, offers something uniquely species-specific: the experience of being understood by another parrot.
For many birds in captivity, healthy companionship can encourage confidence, play, movement, exploration, and comfort. Some learn by watching another bird bathe, try new foods, or interact with their environment. Others simply benefit from sitting close, vocalizing together, or sharing quiet routines.
Cookie and Ernie are birds through and through. They have each other, and that kind of connection can offer something even the most caring human cannot fully replace. While every bird is different and companionship must always be based on choice and compatibility, their bond is a beautiful reminder that for many parrots, another bird can be one of the greatest gifts to wellbeing. #MAARS #parrots #sanctuary #cockatoos #nonprofit
@Progressive
Not Cute. Not Funny. Not Fun.
Your latest extremely irresponsible social ad featuring an African Grey may seem harmless at first glance, but it raises serious concerns about both parrot welfare and safety.
African Grey parrots are not gimmicks to sell insurance, and portraying them riding around in toy motor boats normalizes dangerous situations that people may try to recreate at home. Parrots can drown in surprisingly shallow water as little as 1–2 inches—particularly if they panic, become exhausted, fall beneath moving objects, or cannot easily escape. What looks controlled on camera can become deadly very quickly in a household setting.
It is also important to remember what species is being used here. The African Grey Parrot is one of the most heavily trafficked parrots in the world and is listed as Endangered, with wild populations devastated by trapping for the pet trade and habitat loss. The species received the highest level of CITES protection due to the severity of exploitation and population decline.
Even with these protections in place, African Greys continue to be trapped and removed from the wild to supply demand for the pet trade. In some parts of their range, populations have declined by as much as 90–99%, with researchers identifying trapping as a major driver of those losses.
Commercials like this do not show the reality these parrots often face in captivity: extreme psychological needs, chronic stress, self-destructive behaviors such as feather destruction and mutilation, intense social dependency, noise, long lifespans, and the profound difficulty of meeting the needs of a highly intelligent wild animal in a human home. Feather destruction and other signs of psychological distress are tragically common in captive African Greys.
When parrots are repeatedly used in advertising and entertainment as amusing, quirky accessories, it fuels demand while stripping away context about the suffering, exploitation, and conservation crisis behind the species.
These birds deserve more than being reduced to marketing gimmicks. They deserve honesty about what they are: highly intelligent, deeply social wild animals whose needs are most often at odds with what captivity can provide. And all of those realities are missing from this “cute” commercial moment.
Image 3 @World Animal Protection
Image 4 @The Parrots Umbrella
#MAARS #Parrots #Sanctuary #Cockatoos #Nonprofit
