I’m just living for the fact that some of y’all haven’t even bothered to contact support to get your blogs unflagged because aside from having a blurred avatar, you can just continue to blog like normal. This site is something else. LOL.
On the topic of Ripley I just want to reiterate why exotic animal (or any unethical animal to own like pugs or scottish folds) “influencers” and online followings are inherently bad 99% of the time, it was perfectly summarized in the last season of Bojack; pop culture inherently normalizes things. Platforms like instagram are notorious for people only showing off the best and #goals while not showing the work that goes into these aesthetics. Be it modelling, travelling, parenting, or pet keeping, I strongly believe the model is the same.
People post the 15 second clip of their cockatoo being cute but they rarely post the hours and hours of 100+db screaming (the Muloccan cockatoo holds the record for loudest bird at 135db, 105db is enough to cause ear damage). I think the push of shorter video apps in recent years exacerbated this problem further.
Another thing to consider is that once you post content its out of your hands. Sure for every 10 cute videos you may post an informative video about parrots not being such great pets, but which do you think will be circulated more? Or reposted and compiled out of context? All these things should be taken into consideration when you put things like this online. Even if you simultaneously share cool photos of your exotic while talking down their ownership (with rescued exotics, notoriously big cats) you’re still sending out the message of “do as I say, not as I do” and anyone with knowledge on parenting or being a role model knows this really not effective, actions speak louder than words.
This part of the post by Ripley’s owner really stuck out to me:
“ever since i was an 8 year old child i wanted this wild animal as a pet and my clickbait channel plus instagram have taught and inspired millions of people by normalizing the idea that exotic birds can be cute puppers to keep in your house”
I honestly don’t see how with video thumbnails like this Ripley’s owner was doing anything other than furthering the demand for toucans as pets and by proxy breeding, poaching, trafficking, and threatening the species.
I found all these comments on one video.
Anyway please don’t buy these animals, and if you already own one please keep it lowkey.
my dude you are literally part of the problem and sending 2 completely different messages, also sending toucan feathers in the mail is probably illegal in many places
Is he going to pluck feathers from his already-dead-now toucan. Does he keep her in the fridge or something
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