Having recently retired from the military, we had a dream to move to a beautiful place that is safe for our young girls to grow up. 

During covid, we rescued two birds. Both birds have their own cages and stay inside. They have both learned to talk and have become a huge and very important part of our family. 

While in the military, we moved a lot and our pets stay with us on our journey. We’ve spent thousands to keep all of our family members together during all of these transitions.

This last move is supposed to be our last, but as we got our birds ready for travel, we learned that one of our birds is illegal in our new location, due to an old law set to prevent wild quakers from overtaking crops. The law says our bird has to have identification on a seamless band, which is generally placed by a breeder.

Seamless leg bands are slipped over a foot of a baby bird, then as the bird grows, the band cannot be removed. The only way to place a seamless band on an adult bird is to break their toes in order to get the band over their foot.

Our bird has clipped wings and has a microchip for identification and never goes outside. We refuse to break her toes in order to place a seamless band on her, as we strongly believe this is inhumane.

She is part of our family and has bonded with us as much as we have with her. We are absolutely devastated because this law allows immediate euthanization if we ever bring her to a vet in Virginia (and other states as well), or if a member of the law catches her with us. 
We can not just surrender her to another rescue situation, as she is our forever feather baby. 

There are many families that are forced to either surrender their feathered family member or  smuggle them into their homes, hoping their birds won’t be confiscated and killed because of this old law. This is a decision  we should NOT have to make.

Update this old law and legalize Monk Parakeets aka Quakers, as family pets with a microchip instead of a seamless leg band.