Well how about a little controversy today? No, it’s not political but for many it will be a little worse.
The other day I posted this picture of a breeder box sitting in filth with two hatched chicks, and a bunch of eggs. with the header comment being “Bird Breeders don’t breed for love. They breed for Greed, and keep Hostages”.
Well I have been thinking about one sentence in a comment to that post. “If we don’t keep good breeding in business, kiss the world of parrots being free in the wild good bye”
This one little sentence has now perplexed me for days…
I’ve been trying to think about birds and animals becoming extinct. What would be their thoughts? Would they want to be the last of their kind on this earth in captivity? Or left in the wild with free choice?
Would they want their last moments to be controlled by wire and concrete? Used as a header like a circus banner. “Come see the last whatever on a stage of dying”
I wonder about “Martha,” the Last Passenger Pigeon who died here in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914.
What about 1918 “Incas,” the last Carolina Parakeet, who again died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo, the only parrot species in the Eastern U.S.
Finally How about “Lonesome George,” the last Pinta Island tortoise in the Galapagos Park.
Personally I don’t think there is a good argument for continued breeding in the bird world considering most are more about greed, than conservation of any kind. damned little is being done in the wild, and that’s where we need to focus our energies, instead of another pet bird that will end up abused, neglected, dead, or become another Rescues problem.
I don’t think that any last, anything would want to be on stage dying in captivity. Because that is what it would be. Dying in captivity. Every time I see pictures of breeder set-ups, I hear many say how wonderful they have it, but all I see is barren cages, made of concrete and wire, and a little box designed to hold a “Treasure of Tragedy”. Maybe that’s a little harsh, but I’d bet that if we could ask those who have gone permanently into that gentle good night. I’d bet they would say let us rule over our own destiny in freedom.
As I look at my own Treasure’s, I feel for their pasts, and I feel for their present. They will never truly know the freedom of flight. No matter how much I love and give to them they can never be free. They will only have freedom when they themselves, go into that gentle good night. There in that is a, tragedy.
Breeders who may “do it right” have no control over the destiny of any bird when it leaves them after the price is paid. That breeder’s Treasure will most likely become the birds Tragedy…
Bob Kaegi
Feathered Angels 