this comment actually irritates me, especially on an Animals Australia forum where you think that people would have a little bit more decency and understanding of animals than to think that clipping a birds wings is anything less than inhumane! I frequently watch the galahs and rainbows lorikeets zooming around like crazy out the front of my house every morning, doing what they do best - flying! I frequently go into my local pet store to buy my cat stuff and see these same species of birds (wings clipped) sitting on a perch looking miserable. How can we deny these creatures of their flight to serve OUR own purposes. A dog, or a cat (if provided with the right home) are still able to make pets AND carry out their natural behaviours. A bird (whether wings clipped or non clipped and in a cage) is NEVER able to be a pet and exhibit natural behaviors. They are either deprived of freedom through rotting in a cage, or denied of the ability to fly through having their wings clipped. All so humans can ENJOY having them as a pet....
As for the safety stuff....PLEASE!!!! this is ridiculous...what about dogs and cats that get hit by cars and so forth...what are we going to do? amputate their legs to ensure their own 'protection!'
On this forum I see all this stuff about animal rights and so forth, but let me tell you I would PREFER to be a beef cattle transported live to Asia and die a horrible death, but live a good quality life prior to my slaughter up north on a massive cattle station exhibiting my natural behavior, than to be a bird whose wings are clipped (and who is never slaughtered) but has to endure the misery of being someone's pet. It's not just about animal death and slaughter or suffering - it is about QUALITY OF LIFE - and no pet bird has this!!!
you make an interesting point. I can tell you are very passionate about this topic, however this is not neccessarily a black and white situation.
A few years back, I rescued a galah who fell rather than flew for the first time and injured her leg and wing. I hand raised her, and let me tell you.. she was one content bird. The body language clearly showed how much she loved being my companion. Until she healed I had to keep her in a cage, with wings clipped. If I didn't do this, she would have ended up in one of our dogs unforgiving mouths or flat in the windscreen of a car because she didn't know how to fly properly. When she was old enough, whilst I was cleaning out her cage, she just took off. Clipped wing and all she just flew away. Didn't affect her in anyway. all this time I thought it was the clipped wing keeping her about... no.
She came back to visit a few weeks later calling out HELLO HELLO HELLO like she picked up off of us when she was younger.
Would you call that cruelty?
P.p even had a nest with his mate last year in our pine trees and they raised 2 beautiful babies.
