How to determine if a rescue organization is legitimate.

Unfortunately it is up to the adopter to know what they are getting and what they are getting into. In most cases the average person won't know what to look for and there's really no way to educate the planet, so this is my attempt at giving the average person the benefit of some information to prepare them in the adoption process.

I would suggest that before you agree to adopt, you visit the rescue. Really look around the place, see if they are clean, feed quality foods to their birds and handle them well. Aside from a towel, where needed, the use of gloves or any sort of grabbing device to get an aggressive bird out of their cages is unnecessary and no rescue should need to use them if they truly know what they are doing.

Ask to speak to other adopters who have gotten birds at the rescue and see what their experiences are.
If you see a bird you like, ask to see its paperwork. All new bird going in to a rescue should be in quarantine and then immediately to the vet to be tested so any communicable diseases will be noted. If the bird is sick, it should be quarantined and treated and most times boarded at the vet so the other birds don't catch anything.

Every bird taken in should have a file, most states require it... who and where it came from, any history it has and all reports of tests. The rescue should have a fairly stringent adoption policy where the adopter has to make several visits to the rescue to handle the bird. Until you know the new owner can get it out of the cage without fear, handle it without fear and a bond is visible between them, they shouldn’t get the bird. Prior to the adoption, once it is agreed, see if they have a pre-visit to the new owner’s home to qualify the space. If a persons home is too small for a proper cage or there is some reason the new home is not adequate, the application should be denied. If they live in an apartment, a landlord approval should be required. Failure to do any of these checks denotes that the rescue just doesn’t care and will give their birds to anyone, which is not a good sign. No bird rescue should be like a store where you simply walk in, say "I want that one" and they hand you the bird sight unseen. I am sure there are rescues out there like that, but IMHO, that’s the worst thing and the bird will eventually be abandoned or abused in some way. See if the rescue has a return policy that allows you to return the bird if things don’t work out. If they don’t, that’s another bad sign.

If I had the time and the finances, I would probably lobby for some type of rescue policy and say that rescues need licenses of some sort to prove their legitimacy, but laws differ from state to state and I can't see that that would stop the scam artists from turning a buck anyway. Maybe its something we can work toward as a group effort.

If you should have questions regarding any rescue or their practices, please feel free to ask here and we will answer to the best of our abilities. Also, if you come across a scam or hustle service, please advise us as well. At that point a warning category will be set up to list the bad ones.