March 16, 2025 at 10:49 pm

Friend Secretly Uploads Videos Of Woman’s African Grey Parrot Singing, And Then Refuses To Take Them Down So She Bans Her From The House Indefinitely

by Heather Hall

Source: Reddit/AITA/Pexels/Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz

Some people don’t realize that respecting boundaries applies to pets, too.

So, what would you do if a friend secretly recorded your pet, uploaded the videos for views, and refused to take them down? Would you let it go and ask them not to do it again? Or would you go a step further and keep them away from your bird altogether?

In the following story, one pet owner finds herself in this exact situation and takes a stand when her friend refuses to respect her wishes. Here’s how it all played out.

AITA for banning my friend from my home after she refused to take videos of my bird down?

Two years ago, I adopted an African Grey Parrot who had suffered neglect. It took me a long time to get her to trust me, but now she is the most loving bird in the world (in my totally unbiased opinion). She is very popular with my friends and loves attention and company, as African Greys are incredibly intelligent and need constant stimulation.

One of her favorite things is to sing along to her favorite Disney Songs, a thing I indulge in whenever she indicates she wants it on.

It recently came to my attention my friend had filmed some of these sing-alongs and uploaded them to her YouTube without my knowledge or permission. I found out as I went looking on my friend’s YouTube for an old video of a night out with a friend who had passed that I was missing, so imagine my surprise when I found six videos of my girl singing.

She confronted her friend, but it didn’t go well.

This made me uncomfortable as it felt like she was exploiting her for views, which, after her previous neglect and how long it took me to win her trust, did not sit well with me.

I confronted my friend about this and she told me it was harmless and it was nice to share cute moment and document it for the future, I told her if that was the reason she’d done this she’d have not hidden it from me.

I asked her to delete the videos and she refused, so I told her I didn’t want her back in my house until she took the videos down as I didn’t trust her to not try and get more videos.

People are split on how they feel about the situation.

She thinks I’m being unreasonable, as it doesn’t hurt my bird, and it’s not like she’s a child who she is putting on the internet for views.

Maybe I was too hard on my friend, but the whole situation feels gross. She is still refusing to remove the videos and has told our friends that I’m being ridiculous.

Most agree with me that it’s incredibly weird that she uploaded the videos without my knowledge, but a couple think I’m being too harsh as it’s “just” a bird.

AITA?

Eek! It’s easy to see both sides of this, but the bird is someone else’s pet.

Let’s see what advice the folks over at Reddit have to offer about this.

Here’s a great question.

Source: Reddit/AITA

According to this person, there’s something she’s not saying.

Source: Reddit/AITA

This person thinks the friend is out of line.

Source: Reddit/AITA

Here’s someone who’s on the friend’s side.

Source: Reddit/AITA

What a tough situation!

On one hand, it’s her pet, and the friend should ask for permission.

On the other, as long as she’s not profiting off the videos, there’s nothing really wrong with it.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.