Parrots call “Fire!” Dorene Olson is skeptical

This is a raging story on two Amazon parrots who apparently called 911 and said:  “Help!   Fire!” and were subsequently rescued from a burning house.

I have worked with parrots since 1991 when I worked for 11 years at an avian and exotic vet clinic as a vet tech and animal behaviourist. I started from scratch – had NO experience with birds what-so-ever, my mother had a “thing” about animals in cages and I was never exposed to them.

When I started at the clinic, I developed a first-time, massive allergic reaction to them, headaches, breaking out in hives, face, neck and hands burning and turning red, but eventually I overcame that, for some strange reason.

Working with parrots at the clinic led me to a love and fascination with them and was at the spearhead of my career of becoming an animal behaviourist, so I have attended conferences and seminars all over the US on parrot behaviour and have spent many weekends volunteering at a huge avian shelter in Minneapolis, where I have adopted and also brought home and placed here several birds.  My crazy Cockatoo, Whimmer, was one of those.

As a trainer and behaviourist, I am really skeptical about how this story can be true, but it is getting tons of national press, and the end result (rescue of the 2 birds) cannot be disputed; I have posts out to all my international associates and am waiting for their thoughts, it is a very interesting current story.