Abstract
Simple SummaryThe trade in birds for pet trade is harming wild bird populations and bird welfare. Inadequate housing of many pet birds results in stereotypies and other indicators of poor welfare in the birds that are currently widespread. Some pet birds were taken from the wild or bred in poor conditions, while others had nutritional, health, and behavioral problems resulting from inadequate living conditions and incorrect husbandry by the bird owners. As a consequence, it is not ethically right to keep the majority of the birds that are at present kept as pets. If birds are to be continued as a companion animal for people, then more effort should be made by pet shop owners and veterinarians to supply literature to prospective owners highlighting not only the proper care for the species of bird but also its needs and requirements, so that bird owners can do their utmost to meet them. Owners do not comply with laws requiring duty of care, unless they obtain and act on such information and also have knowledge of how to provide good nutrition and minimize the risk of disease. New laws are needed to prohibit taking birds from the wild and keeping birds in conditions that do not meet their needs.We describe a wide range of unethical and unsustainable practices inherent to the trading and keeping of pet birds. At present, biodiversity and wild bird populations are being greatly harmed and many individual birds have poor welfare. Wild-caught birds should not be sold to the public as pets, or to breeding establishments for several reasons, including because 75–90% of wild-caught birds die before the point of sale and taking birds from the wild has negative effects on biodiversity. The housing provided for pet birds should meet the needs of birds of that species and allow good welfare, for example there should be no small cages but aviaries with space for each bird to exercise adequately, and social birds should be kept in social groups. At present, inadequate housing of many pet birds results in stereotypies and other indicators of poor welfare in birds. Owners should have knowledge of how to provide good nutrition and minimize the risk of disease. Unless these changes are made, keeping birds as pets should not be permitted. New laws are needed to prohibit taking birds from the wild and ensure captive pet birds in conditions that do meet their needs.
Highlights
There is little public awareness of this, and despite widespread appreciation for wild birds, many are still kept in the house without consideration of the impact that this practice has on wild bird populations and biodiversity in general
All disease causes some degree of poor welfare and this can be extreme in some pet birds
The trade in wild birds to be sold as pets is reducing biodiversity and the number of wild birds in the world, and this reduction is rapid for some species
Summary
Some aspects of obtaining and selling birds and keeping them in captivity as pets are not acceptable to a high proportion of the public, in particular because of biodiversity loss, impact on conservation policies, and poor welfare of the birds. Birds were the third commonest pet when fish were not counted individually [8,9,10], explaining that unlike other pets such as cats and dogs, birds are not usually considered to be domesticated animals, even when they are a captive bred species. Unlike cats and dogs, captive bred birds are mostly physically identical to their wild counterparts, the only exceptions being the few species bred to express color mutations or hybridization [9,10,13]. There are several ethical and scientific arguments concerning the keeping of birds as pets
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