Noisy Minor Birds

Even if Noisy Minors WERE introduced, I would still consider this animal abuse. Another thing is are the people killing them "Oh, because they are bad for the ecosystem" or because they are Noisy?

As far as I'm aware, they don't even exist in Western Australia. They're found along the East Coast and Tasmania.

Your acquaintances are doing the wrong thing. No member of the public should take it upon themselves to cull any species, unless advised/permitted to by an official.

As for the culling of 'pest' species, that is a really difficult thing to consider. I was raised to care about the environment first and foremost, but my love for individual animals makes the thought of culling really difficult. I am not sure what damage noisy minors do, I suppose they breed more than other species and may be taking and defending more than their share of natural bushland... That is not good. On the other hand I have personally rescued and helped raise a noisy minor chick that I found on the road one day. It was a tiny little sweet creature, and upon taking it outside one day found that other mothers in the area responded to it's chirps and came to feed it. Before long it had grown up and flew away with it's new adopted family. That was truly wonderful.

Perhaps I did more harm than good. Perhaps I should have let it die. I don't know. I feel like I did the right thing. I don't think I would have been strong enough to let it die anyway.

The whole pest/culling/environment discussion is really difficult. I guess at the end of the day I have to support it when truly necessary and when ALL other options have been exhausted.

It seems to come down to the horrible choice of who gets to live and who gets to die. Feral animals or native animals? They both have the same capabilities of suffering but you have to make the tough choice of which is better in the long run.

Whoops sorry I meant the Indian ones! Thankyou for sharing your thoughts Still not quite sure what to think of this situation. It would be good if if we could send them all back to their home country

I've never understood the panic about introduced species. Sure, it would be better if it never happened, and the natural fauna and flora ran their course, but after so long of having rabbits and Indian miner birds and cane toads living in the wild, I'd consider them part of the environment. They're there, thriving, just like any native species would. Treating an introduced species differently to a native one when there's clearly no chance of (humane) eradication is just another irrational facet of speciesism.

Also note that just because they are "native" to Australia, doesn't mean that they are native to the region. Nature knows not of political boundaries.

Indian miner birds kill the eggs of native bird species and move into their nests. That  is why they are a pest, that aside, it is cruel to catch and kill them if you don't know what you are doing.

I've found this a difficult discussion, my dad often brings it up as he is pretty passionate about protecting Australia's native flora and fauna (he's mentioned wanting to shoot 'pest' birds when he sees them in the garden). He knows I care too but also that I care a lot about animals (native or not). It's a hard one because it's really sad to see that introduced species of animals can really effect the existence of native ones.. But it's not their fault they've been introduced by us. we can do our best to control it, especially the amount of feral cats and dogs that are bred as they can kill native lizards and birds etc. And also support environmental volunteer work to give native animals more homes/sources of food in your local region.

And then again, humans are the ones behind all the destruction of Australia's native plants and animals.. Why should other animals be culled because of our mistakes while we keep on doing damage?

the council where my mother lives has a $2.00 bounty on each Indian minor bird caught and surrendered im led to believe they then gas them not sure on this but the man that runs the reptile park said that reminded me of the Jewish holocaust when he said it  not fair like some one said we brought them here