In a recent email, a longtime Mickaboo volunteer voiced deep frustration that papilloma-positive birds needing placement are not being discussed on Discuss, Mickaboo’s discussion list, and that she is repeatedly asked to take them despite having done so for twenty years. The foster wrote that she had to turn down two of these birds recently because she can no longer carry the workload alone. She explained that she took in one bird nearly ten months ago as a temporary foster only because leadership assured her he would move quickly. He never moved. No one posted about placement needs on Discuss. No one promoted pap-positive birds to new volunteers. No one supported her after she asked for movement. She said the promise of “temporary” was a lie and that leadership knew it. She described emotional exhaustion and rising costs. She said she is retired and dealing with health problems. She said she cannot keep doing this. She pleaded for someone to step up.

The core of her message was simple: for two decades she has acted as the default foster for pap-positive birds because no one else will. She asked why the organization continues to rely on her. She asked why no one prepares new volunteers for the birds who need them most. She said her current foster bird is not getting the attention he deserves because she refuses to bond with a bird she was told she would not keep long-term.

These are not new issues. They have, in fact, been detailed extensively on this website.

Leadership’s Response Confirms the Problem

Leadership’s Tammy Azzaro’s reply unintentionally validated the foster’s concerns. She promised to increase placement efforts, which signaled that existing efforts were minimal. She did not address why the placement pipeline failed. She did not address why no one used the Discuss list.

Another volunteer responded more bluntly and said that “temporary” fosters “most assuredly” translate to forever, especially for larger birds. This comment confirmed what the foster already knew. Temporary is not temporary. Movement is not happening. Leadership promises outcomes they cannot deliver.

A Year of Internal Upheaval

Tammy attributed the extended foster period to “an unusually difficult year.” By this she meant that Mickaboo had faced internal turmoil after two volunteers exposed systemic problems, including overcrowding and birds remaining in foster care for years. Her “difficult year” intensified when the SF Chronicle reported additional animal welfare concerns tied to long-term boarding and weak oversight. None of this, however, explains the delay in moving a foster bird. These delays have been the status quo for years.

Leadership itself created the current turmoil. Instead of addressing the issues or making needed changes, leadership removed the volunteers who raised concerns, attacked the integrity of the journalist who wrote the article and cast themselves as victims. One of the removed volunteers had been involved for more than 25 years and kept major parts of the operation running. The other had recently joined but stepped in when the system was already failing and helped restore processes leadership had allowed to deteriorate. Once these volunteers were gone the approval pipeline once again stalled, foster movement slowed, volunteers left and some donors withdrew support.

The Approvals Process Has Collapsed

The foster’s experience reflects a much bigger issue. Mickaboo’s adopter approval system has almost collapsed. Very few applicants move through the process. The organization has so few coordinators left that final approvals sit untouched. Without coordinators the pipeline stops. Without movement birds stack up in foster homes and volunteers burn out. That is exactly what the foster described.

Adoptions Have Come to a Standstill

Other than budgies few birds are being adopted out. Even budgies are moving slowly. Larger parrots like Amazons and macaws sit in foster care or boarding facilities with no clear path forward. Leadership claims adoptions are steady or improving but volunteers on the ground see the opposite. The system is not moving birds, yet leadership continues to take in more.

The Coco Situation Shows How Broken the System Is

The recent case involving an amazon named Coco makes this even clearer. A Spanish-speaking family brought Coco to an emergency clinic after an injury. The clinic pressured a surrender. The family later raised funds and tried to reclaim their bird. Mickaboo refused to return him despite having more than 35 other Amazons in foster care. Their refusal makes no sense given the backlog of fosters but is indicative of leadership’s unwillingness to admit mistakes or correct harmful practices.

A System Near Collapse

Mickaboo’s problems reach far beyond one bird or one volunteer. The organization struggles to move special needs birds through the system and the adopter approval pipeline has stalled because coordinators have left and applications sit untouched. Birds remain stuck in overcrowded foster homes or expensive boarding facilities with no clear path forward. Leadership avoids transparency, rejects needed changes and continues to take in birds despite having too few appropriate fosters. This leaves volunteers overwhelmed while families like Coco’s lose their birds even though dozens of similar birds sit unplaced.

This overcrowding crisis and the reliance on permanent fosters are not new. They have been among Mickaboo’s biggest failures for years. Birds that should move into adoptive homes instead remain with “temporary” fosters for months or years because the organization’s adoption system is too slow, to exclusionary and too arbitrary.

Mickaboo might have options if it had not spent millions of donor dollars at one veterinary clinic. Those funds could have built a working approval system, created support structures for fosters or provided sanctuary options for unadoptable birds. Instead long-term financial choices drained resources that could have prevented the crisis. The result is a rescue system that cannot manage the birds it already has and can no longer hide the depth of its failures.