I saw a Jennifer Aniston movie on DVD the other night called "Love Happens". In one scene the male lead in the movie, Burke, decides to follow up on the promise he made to his deceased wife to free her pet Cockatoo if anything happened to her. And so he takes the bird out to the woods in Seattle and releases it.A beautiful sentiment, however extremely inhumane. Had Burke bothered to do any research before he rashley decided to free a bird used to being cared for by people he would have found that this was a bad idea.
Cockatoos are native to Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. It's not likely that a cockatoo would be able to survive a winter in Seattle where it gets down to as low as 40F.
Additionally -- animals raised in captivity were never taught survival skills. Releasing a pet bird to fend for itself could end up with his being unable to properly forage and know how to avoid dangerous situations.
I know this is "just a movie", but it still bothered me that such an irresponsible act was portrayed in film without the plot line indicating in some way just what the possible consequences could be for the bird.
9 comments:
It bothered me, too. Good metaphor, bad for the bird.
This was a really cruel mean thing to do.. i can't believe they didn't do research on that! it was so cold that they had mitts on and steam coming from their mouths, that bird should NOT have been out there in the first place even while filming.. what kind of IDIOT wrote that?!? i was expecting them to go back to New Guinea on a trip to release the bird.. this just REALLY ticks me off beyond how stupid & cruel people can be to make a buck!! shame on Jennifer Aniston too for agreeing to it.
I just saw the movie and I don't think it was even reasonabl the story is such BS. Whoever wrote the story arc about releasing the bird didn't even have a brain cell. birds like this that can live 25+ years and an owner wouldn't even consider throwing their bird into the wild like that.
As you can probably tell from this post I'm po'd that I took the time to even watch this BS.
I agree. I have seen this movie several times and every time I see it I worry about the fact that they set this bird "free". I worry that people will see this and think they should do the same thing but hopefully anyone that ones a beautiful bird like this would know it is inhumane.
I just saw the movie and agree with the other sentiments. What kind of moron would release a bird native to a tropical climate and raised in captivity, into a Seattle forest in winter? It made me so angry that they didn't address the cruelty of doing so. It was irresponsible to include that storyline in the film, I'm sure there are many people who watched it who now think that it is okay to do. Shame on the writers and producers. That bird wouldn't stand a chance. What would it even eat? "Love Happens" was idiotic on so many levels. Terrible movie.
Just saw it again and we all sat there and said how ridiculous it is that they put this in the movie. If Rocky survived the night from predators, he'd probably freeze to death and if not, starve. Hate movies where they have don't do their research. Totally ruined what was a mediocre movie anyway.
Coming from Australia I can tell you that Sulphur Crested Cockatoo's can liVe up to 80 years and become extremely attached to their carers. A stupid scene in a stupid movie.
Caught 5mins of this film and also thought the bird would be released in Aus or at least a massive indoor Avairy type place. Even though we all know it's a film, it always upsets me when people are shown its ok to release a non native animal free. Turned over after that and looked on web to find out what's happens to the bird within the plot. Nothing. If real life the bird would be killed within two nights by a predator. Rubbish film
I so agree with everyone here. I worry that someone else will think this is a loving thing to do to a pet. What did this add to the plot anyhow?
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