A parrot’s flight to Portugal

Let me introduce myself, I am Quack- Quack (Quackie to my friends) and I have just completed a huge adventure….

Twelve years ago, I had taken residence in the garden of a villa, and a very kind lady decided to adopt me, I became her pet and friend. I grew extremely attached to her over the years.

I became very worried though when she informed me that she was relocating to Portugal. How would I cope without her? … being separated and alone again…. Luckily for me my owner feared my heartbreak – and said I could hop on the adventure of a lifetime.

I never knew how special I was, until we started the paperwork. My official scientific name is ‘Psittacus Erithacus’ and I am apparently considered as an ‘Appendix I’ category on the CITES register. I’m thought of as an endangered species, and international controls have been set up for the movement of the likes of me from many countries.

What I wasn’t aware of at the time, is that I required lots of special paperwork, treatment, and tests for me to be able to fly.

Fortunately, I have a lovely golden closed foot ring, which is my identifier, however, to be sure that I was who I said I was I had a tiny microchip placed in my left wing. It didn’t hurt, and it means that it can be read easily… I suppose it is similar to a human passport number.

My owner, with the assistance of the German Veterinary Clinic’s wonderful Pet Relocation Team, wrote to the Portuguese authorities for their permission for me to travel and applied for a CITES Import Permit. Once that was issued, they also applied for official ownership registration and an Export CITES Certificate. This was a lengthy process as I had no previous paperwork to rely on and my origin was unknown. Finally, the paperwork came through, which was checked and double checked to ensure complete consistency with both documents. Phew! I was relieved.