Animal Cruelty in Canada

This was one of my small successes in life, when I was around 25 years old, I got a job working in the great Corcovado rainforest in Costa Rica. The job was at a biological reserve & paid 100$ a month lol. My tasks involved taking care of 100 acres of land for people to do research on. I would build bridges, clean trails, fix the cabins and take care of the guest during their stay at the ranger station. My daily routine involved waking up before everyone and preparing for the day, this meant I would get to see the macaw family fly out in the morning from their nest high up in the canopy of trees. There was 13 scarlet macaws in the group, and one morning I tried to feed one by climbing up the tree with food. Eventually a younger bird came to get it, so I continued going to give it food, mostly crackers and mayo packs, we became pals. One day it came to sleep on me lap while I was swinging in a hammock, its was such a cool moment in my life, I recall its eye focusing on me like birds do when excited. The macaw came to see me every so often for the rest of my stay in the biological reserve.

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Half of the birds imported in Canada wont make it past 3 years. It was so hard seeing animals arrive in boxes full of their waste, rotten food and thinking they where keep at customs in horrible situations.

ex pet store employee

Fast forward a few year, im back in Canada now working at a pet store in which birds are sold. I was hired because of my experience but little did we know it would end bad. This pet store was owned and run by a fella last named Hagen, a large Canadian pet supply company. They would import wild caught parrots from around the world to sell for a few thousand dollars each. So basically I started having nightmare of someone catching my little macaw friend in Costa Rica and sending them here. I though to myself its awful supporting people to capture wild birds, and often these birds would die, they we not used to being caged and definitely not used to our climate in the northern hemisphere. I started challenging the owner alot, forcing him to pet vet bills offering the best care possible to the point he was loosing money. Eventually I got fired. I wanted to free every bird in the shop before leaving.

Fast forward 5 years now, I was still involved in aviary care, having done some falconry course and volunteering at a bird sanctuary. IOne night I decided to attend a parrot club meeting downtown Ottawa. So as I’m walking into the event, and to my surprise I bump into the owner of the pet shop that fired me. We exchange pleasantries and I ask him why he is here, he tells me he is making a speech tonight and that he hoped I’d stay to listen so I did.

I lost my job & maintained my integrity

There was a decent attendance that night, like over 50 people, I to sat in the front row in hopes to give him a hard time publicly as I had seen alot of difficult things working for him. To my surprised he had a beautiful powerpoint presentation prepared, showing the atrocities of importing wild caught birds, and at the end he admitted to being guilty of this. Now he no longer imports wild caught birds for his stores, and he even created a huge sanctuary for them as they may be hard to reintroduce in the wild. And for the big little success he was part of a lobbying committee that made it illegal now in canada to import wild caught birds, only captive breed species are allowed. I was so pleased to hear and see this new law being implimented.

At the end of his presentation, I raise my hand to ask a question, with a huge smile on my face I ask, Mr. Hagen can I now have my job back. He laughs and congratulated me for pressuring him to think more about this and we shook hands (:

“Never ever under estimate your power to influence change ”

Michel Lacroix