President's Bio
Richard Chiger

Richard Chiger has been an animal rescue (animal rights) worker all his life.  His interest with birds began at a very young age when he used to visit the bird house in the Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn, NY, as well as   spending time in every pet shop that sold birds in his neighborhood.   Next to elephants (his life's passion) , Richie loves parrots, chickens and dogs best.  His ardor for parrots was the motivating factor for him, along with Matt Frumess and a few other people,  to co-found The Catskill Exotic Bird Club.   Richie has been the president of the club from almost since its inception in 1987.  Richie urges people who choose to keep a parrot as a pet to make that bird a part of their family,  We, as parrot owners must make up for the bird family that the parrot would have been part of were he/she wild and free.  Richie wishes there could be a moratorium on captive breeding for the pet industry because there are so many parrots who were originally bought as pets and are now homeless and need to find a permanent place to be for their lifetimes.  Parrots are high maintenance pets and people should not buy or adopt one without doing serious and extensive research into what they are getting involved and what they will have to do.  Please come and join our club if you love parrots or canaries, or finches or any other kind of pet birds ( we have members who have crows and starlings living with them)  We would love to have you as part of our bird family. 

Richie and his wife, Jackie, share their lives with a scarlet macaw, Aristophanes, a yellow naped Amazon, Emma, and a cockatiel, Zeke.