For the past week and a half I have been staying at a beautiful initiative just outside of Curitiba, Brazil.
What initially attracted me to visit this place was:
1) Their dedication to preserving and regrowing the Araucaria Forest, a type of forest within the Atlantic Forest. They do this by, locating rare and endangered tree and plant species in the wild, harvesting their seeds, germinating them in the lab under various conditions to understand the best techniques and then planting those seeds in their nursery. The nursery provides these trees and plants on an non-monetary exchange basis to other NGOs, governmental organizations and land owners.
2) They take care of rescued birds, they have parrots, a toucan and cockatoos.
So far, while being here I have:
1) Helped feed the animals in the morning, which I love doing. I get to feed the toucans, the parrots, the pheasants, the bunnies and the sheep. The toucan and the parrots love visitors, they always come sit close to me while I am filling their bowls with fruit, seeds and their other special food.
I tried to teach one of the parrots, the more friendly one how to say 1, 2 and 3 in english, he got stuck on the 'th' part, and it was the cutest thing I ever witnessed for him to repeat that over and over. It struck me that he maybe hadn't heard that sound before as it's not a sound in Portuguese. These birds are in large enclosures, the wild would be the most ideal, however they have been living in captivity their whole lives and don't have the skills needed to survive on their own :(.
I decided to buy some bird toys for these sweet animals who maybe would like something additional in their homes. And in my search for bird toys on some dirt roads just outside of Curitiba, we happened to stumble across 4 pet stores all of which had very sad toys for birds, finally the last place we went directed us to go to 'birds paradise' just straight down the road.
We landed up at this place, and granted they actually had bird toys... and as I walked in with my friend, and we looked up and over... hundreds... of birds... locked in small cages.. isolated. Singing the saddest songs I'd ever heard. The energy was so overwhelming, I could feel the tears welling in my eyes. I had to walk away. I felt so helpless, and as these pet store managers sat there with their nice clothes helping the customers, I couldn't help but feel so strange inside.
I know people are ultimately just trying to provide for their families, and they do what makes money, and at the present moment, slavery, animal slavery in the form of entertainment pays well. The guy next to us bought 500 reias worth of bird stuff. Granted I did give money to this institution which I wasn't happy about, but I felt that the potential joy to these birds I've been caring for was worth it. And I pray that as a human family, as a society we recognize the pain that we create in our world through our use of animals. How we treat them as objects, devalue their worth, their quality of life, for our taste, pleasure, entertainment, products, snacks, clothes, meals... anything and everything.. we choose which ones we love, we choose which ones we eat, which ones we torture, or which ones are too 'stupid' to know the difference. These are OUR choices.. not theirs. Even the 'stupidest' person among us.. no one would smile and agree that that person is deserving of being killed brutally for their physical properties. We can live without animal products and animal entertainment. In fact, we can live much happier lives without this. We can embrace peace in all aspects of our lives not just conceptually, and I believe it starts with how we treat those otherwise treated the worst in our society, which are animals. Some believe that it doesn't make sense to do anything for animals, that there are 'better' things to give attention to such as human rights. Yes, I agree, absolutely give attention to human rights, it's necessary. Just because we believe in human rights doesn't mean we shouldn't believe in animal rights too, or do anything for the animals in addition.
Okay that was a long tangent, but all things animals related are too close to my heart to avoid tangents.... anyway, back to my work at Chaua :)
2) Helped reuse and recycle the plastic coverings for the seedlings, empty the containers, and refill them with soil. This is actually a huge job, and unfortunately most nurseries don't even do this, they would more likely throw the containers away and buy new. So it's a great effort to keep plastic from entering our waters, soils and being ingested by animals and people.
3) Editing an English proposal they have for a European environmental organization. Their proposal is in creating educational trails around their property featuring the rare and endangered plant and tree species of the Araucaria Forest, this would enable them to create more activities on their property in showcasing these plants and trees in their full form.
4) Helping to plant a native garden, featuring native peach trees and beautiful flowering bushes surrounding a small pond. Since the soil is super clayey, we needed to use a mixed soil that included compost, potting soil and sand.
5) Weeding in the nursery
6) Drying of shade clothes for the nursery plants
7) Building beds to expand the nursery area
8) Cleaning
That about sums it up for now :)
Some pictures from my stay so far:
What initially attracted me to visit this place was:
1) Their dedication to preserving and regrowing the Araucaria Forest, a type of forest within the Atlantic Forest. They do this by, locating rare and endangered tree and plant species in the wild, harvesting their seeds, germinating them in the lab under various conditions to understand the best techniques and then planting those seeds in their nursery. The nursery provides these trees and plants on an non-monetary exchange basis to other NGOs, governmental organizations and land owners.
2) They take care of rescued birds, they have parrots, a toucan and cockatoos.
So far, while being here I have:
1) Helped feed the animals in the morning, which I love doing. I get to feed the toucans, the parrots, the pheasants, the bunnies and the sheep. The toucan and the parrots love visitors, they always come sit close to me while I am filling their bowls with fruit, seeds and their other special food.
I tried to teach one of the parrots, the more friendly one how to say 1, 2 and 3 in english, he got stuck on the 'th' part, and it was the cutest thing I ever witnessed for him to repeat that over and over. It struck me that he maybe hadn't heard that sound before as it's not a sound in Portuguese. These birds are in large enclosures, the wild would be the most ideal, however they have been living in captivity their whole lives and don't have the skills needed to survive on their own :(.
I decided to buy some bird toys for these sweet animals who maybe would like something additional in their homes. And in my search for bird toys on some dirt roads just outside of Curitiba, we happened to stumble across 4 pet stores all of which had very sad toys for birds, finally the last place we went directed us to go to 'birds paradise' just straight down the road.
We landed up at this place, and granted they actually had bird toys... and as I walked in with my friend, and we looked up and over... hundreds... of birds... locked in small cages.. isolated. Singing the saddest songs I'd ever heard. The energy was so overwhelming, I could feel the tears welling in my eyes. I had to walk away. I felt so helpless, and as these pet store managers sat there with their nice clothes helping the customers, I couldn't help but feel so strange inside.
I know people are ultimately just trying to provide for their families, and they do what makes money, and at the present moment, slavery, animal slavery in the form of entertainment pays well. The guy next to us bought 500 reias worth of bird stuff. Granted I did give money to this institution which I wasn't happy about, but I felt that the potential joy to these birds I've been caring for was worth it. And I pray that as a human family, as a society we recognize the pain that we create in our world through our use of animals. How we treat them as objects, devalue their worth, their quality of life, for our taste, pleasure, entertainment, products, snacks, clothes, meals... anything and everything.. we choose which ones we love, we choose which ones we eat, which ones we torture, or which ones are too 'stupid' to know the difference. These are OUR choices.. not theirs. Even the 'stupidest' person among us.. no one would smile and agree that that person is deserving of being killed brutally for their physical properties. We can live without animal products and animal entertainment. In fact, we can live much happier lives without this. We can embrace peace in all aspects of our lives not just conceptually, and I believe it starts with how we treat those otherwise treated the worst in our society, which are animals. Some believe that it doesn't make sense to do anything for animals, that there are 'better' things to give attention to such as human rights. Yes, I agree, absolutely give attention to human rights, it's necessary. Just because we believe in human rights doesn't mean we shouldn't believe in animal rights too, or do anything for the animals in addition.
Okay that was a long tangent, but all things animals related are too close to my heart to avoid tangents.... anyway, back to my work at Chaua :)
2) Helped reuse and recycle the plastic coverings for the seedlings, empty the containers, and refill them with soil. This is actually a huge job, and unfortunately most nurseries don't even do this, they would more likely throw the containers away and buy new. So it's a great effort to keep plastic from entering our waters, soils and being ingested by animals and people.
3) Editing an English proposal they have for a European environmental organization. Their proposal is in creating educational trails around their property featuring the rare and endangered plant and tree species of the Araucaria Forest, this would enable them to create more activities on their property in showcasing these plants and trees in their full form.
4) Helping to plant a native garden, featuring native peach trees and beautiful flowering bushes surrounding a small pond. Since the soil is super clayey, we needed to use a mixed soil that included compost, potting soil and sand.
5) Weeding in the nursery
6) Drying of shade clothes for the nursery plants
7) Building beds to expand the nursery area
8) Cleaning
That about sums it up for now :)
Some pictures from my stay so far:
The kitties finding my bed on the first day :)
Brazilian ducks..
Love the hair... :)
Love this parrot sooooo much <3
They are so beautiful, I wish there was a way to rehabilitate them back into the wild... maybe there is
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