2010 Convention Keynote Address

Abstract

The 36th Annual Convention "The Magic of Birds" in St. Petersburg, Florida was held in August. The tall wizard's hat and flowing majestic robes of the speaker, Dr. Benny Gallaway, appeared center stage delivering a memorable keynote address asking the question:

Is the American Federation of Aviculture Inc. a magical organization?

The AFA was founded in 1974 as a 50l(c)3 educational organization. The mission statement: "To provide the advancement of aviculture through educational programs that support improved husbandry practices, conservation, research and legislative awareness" has provided a benchmark for important events and people who have shaped the organization. AF A has been recognized since the mid-1980s as the grass roots organization of American Aviculture.

Today, the AFA offers avicultural educational programs online where continuing education credits are awarded for these programs, as well as for the conventions. Additional educational efforts include publishing the premier avicultural magazine or journal, the Watchbird. AFA supports a diversity of research and conservation studies, and has an ongoing effort to keep its members aware of potential adverse legislation. Further, AF A reaches out in times of crises (e.g., hurricanes and wildfires) to assist bird owners in reclaiming their lives. While many know what AFA does and its importance, relatively few know how the organization became what it is today and the people who shaped its history.

Origins-The Early 1970s

In 1973, the California state legislature drafted a bill to ban the keeping of all wild animals in captivity, including virtually all of the bird species kept in aviculture. The Orange County Bird Breeders asked one of its members, Jerry Jennings, to testify against that bill in Sacramento, the California state capital. The bill was killed but was revived in 1974, at about the same time the U.S. Department of Interior's Injurious Wildlife Proposal surfaced. In this proposal, all exotic birds were characterized as posing a significant threat to agriculture, horticulture, forestry, and domestic wildlife. Given these threats, five of the most active dubs got together and by the end of March 1974 had an umbrella organization, a federation of dubs which would serve to educate and inform the member bird dubs on everything avicultural from how to breed Budgies to what was going on at the local and federal levels that would affect aviculture. This 50l(c)3 organization, The American Federation of Aviculture, was designed to, among other things, represent all five dubs when necessary, thus eliminating the need and expense for each dub to send its own people to the state capital, Washington, D.C. , or wherever. The newly formed organization elected Jerry Jennings as the inaugural President (Aug. 2, 1974-Aug. 21,1976) and was instrumental in educating legislators to the extent that the threatening legislation was either killed or withdrawn. The small group decided they needed to expand outside the state of California and did so by joining every bird dub they could find that issued a roster of members. The group combed through 10 years of issues of the American Cage Bird Magazine selecting names to hand-address a nationwide mailing expanding the horizons of the fledgling organization. N evertheless, the new organization was not widely embraced as a necessary entity and grew slowly.