Video is on YouTube!!! YAY!

HI ALL! FINALLY the video is on youtube! It's not a documentary or that kind of thing, it's just a short video of me talking about Wesley with some footage of me and Wesley cuddling and just hanging out with each other.

Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vufEqpZZql0

Now, be warned. When I got sick I gained weight and because of my illness I am still overweight, so I no longer look like that 95 pound kid you see in the book. But I'm alive and that's a wonderful thing.

To me, the most important thing about this video is that it shows Wesley cuddling with me. I'm not sure, but this MIGHT be the only such footage in the public realm of an owl cuddling! Why? There's a horrendous myth out there, believed by zookeepers, animal trainers, biologists, rehabbers - pretty much EVERYONE who works with owls, and it's that "Owls hate to be touched. They do not want affection! Do NOT be affectionate with an owl!"

I've seen "experts" tout this belief on TV as recently as a few weeks ago and it BREAKS MY HEART! The result of this belief is that people who work with owls are told this by people they respect, so they believe it, so they never offer ANY affection to a captive owl, who is then starved for affection. And they wonder why the owl is so feisty, upset, nervous, and won't calm down.

In the wild, owls spend hours and hours cuddling w/ their mate each day, as well as allopreening (preening each others' feathers, which is like getting a massage almost). When they have babies, the cuddling is even more intense. They NEED cuddling for psychological reasons but also physiologically, because it releases endorphins which prevent depression, and yes, owls get depressed.

So, because of this belief in their not wanting any affection, owls are in a sense being mistreated in captivity, albeit not deliberately, by people who would never knowingly mistreat an animal.

Owls are not humans, but imagine raising a human with no touch or affection at all. The human develops 'attachment disorder' which means they cannot bond normally to others and they can't stand to be held and touched, among other things. Some babies will die if never touched/cuddled. Well, owls are very similar to us in that regard.

So this video is SO IMPORTANT TO ME because it SHOWS that a barn owl loves affection, and both gives and receives it. It SHOWS that the owl craves the affection and can be very relaxed and intimate w/ the keeper. We're talking about owls who are unreleasable here. A releasable owl you would never want to interact with as a human because you are trying to get it ready to survive in the wild, so you don't want it imprinting on humans.

But there are a LOT of unreleasable owls in captivity whose lives would be radically improved if people understood that the owls WANT and CRAVE affection!

So please help me get the word out and get this video out so that we can smash that myth for once and for all!

Thank you all so much for your support, your kind words, and for your love for all creatures - even the wild souls among us!

-Stacey

PS: I'm looking into putting mp3s of Wesley's vocalizations up for people to hear...