Make a little birdhouse in your soul, while you're at it...

Well, I did it. I went to my local Meijer again yesterday and took pictures of the birds and their living conditions. No one noticed, because none of their associates actually spends time in the pet section looking after the animals. I also went to the Customer Service desk and talked to the Pets Department manager (I had to go up there, of course, because again, no one actually seems to work in Pets or give a damn about pets.) He told me that they "probably" had a valid license, even though the one they are displaying expired in June, and that the birds never go to the vet while they are in Meijer's care.

While I was there, I observed nasty dirty water in a parakeet cage, two parakeets mating (with the female looking rather bedraggled from fending off previous advances) normal green and yellow parakeets marked as "rare" (I know it's an artificial distinction to start with, but at least get it right!) and a young cockatiel who wouldn't even sit on his perch. I thought the cage was empty until I was almost ready to leave, because he was hunkered down on the floor of his cage with his feathers fluffed. This is a very bad sign in birds, it almost always means that they are sick and need to go to the vet immediately.

So this morning, armed with my information, the license number, and my pictures, I called the Illinois Bureau of Animal Health and Welfare. They're filing it as a complaint, and promised that the investigator will look into it. I hope they do it soon, for the sake of the little cockatiel, if nothing else. I'm including some of my pictures here, so you can see what I saw. Bear in mind, these were taken with flash off and me holding the camera above my head. I'm short, and they keep the birds on the top shelf.

( Pictures from Meijer in Champaign, Illinois )