Fish Cruelty...?

[marauder_77868]

In example #2 is it possible that those birds are babies that are still being hand fed? Were they bobbing and making a litlle screeching sound?

[FrontosaurusRex]

I'm not a bird expert so I dont know if they were babies or not, but either way, the cages prevented them from standing up straight. Actually now that I think about it, I've seen a full grown, brightly colored bird in those same cages. I remember because I was buying frozen food and the refrigerator is right next to the cage and I thought, "dude, if i had the money, i'd save you from this cage".

[FrontosaurusRex]

It got all dramatic...the lights lowered, the wind came whistling in from the door and a tumbleweed rolled right under me. I looked deep in the birds eyes and for a moment i heard him speak...."I just wanna fly..." is all he said to me. That day was one of the hardest days i've ever had to live because, no matter how much I wanted to help the bird....I just didnt have enough to save him AND hit up a Chinese Buffet....

[newb]

haha...

[Kittysnax]

It got all dramatic...the lights lowered, the wind came whistling in from the door and a tumbleweed rolled right under me. I looked deep in the birds eyes and for a moment i heard him speak...."I just wanna fly..." is all he said to me. That day was one of the hardest days i've ever had to live because, no matter how much I wanted to help the bird....I just didnt have enough to save him AND hit up a Chinese Buffet....

you coulda had peking duck.......oh the irony LOL!

[marauder_77868]

Yeah...those are birds that are being fed out...and they are fully feathered often for weeks before they leave the nest box. The way they were kept is actually better than in a large cage because: (1) the birds don't have the muscle strength yet to be in a big cage and would fall and injure themselves, (2) the proper temperature is easier to maintain in a smaller space, (3) they are much easier to keep clean when kept individually, (4) it is much easier to make sure each bird gets the proper feeding (they are being hand fed a formula). Additionally, these birds in an aviary or in the wild would be raised in an environment when there are 3 or 4 of them crawling around in their own excrement...so what they are in is far better than what they would have in the wild. It is important to note for the sake of this discussion that before leveling a criticism to consider that we might not be as educated or knowledgeable about a given situation as we think.

[nikkijean1]

i am not saying i am a bird expert but those birds were huge, they were not babies, i literlly told my husband as soon as we left that i was never going in there again it made me so sad

[cameracorpus]

I often feel the same way at the LFS and box stores. But since I think too much, I then start thinking about fishing. Something I did for years. But near the end of my fishing days, I began to feel for the fish I was catching, and also the fish I was using for bait. After all, having a hook through my lip and being held in one place until something came to eat me doesn't seem very appealing. Not to mention all the loss of baitfish and shrimp due to transportation, etc. After all, other than the fact that we like certain species of fish more than others, what is the difference between using a mud minnow or mullet as bait or grabbing a fish out of one of our tanks to use for bait? Still a tormented fish.

But anyway, there are a lot of folks in the world that believe, for one reason or another, that we are the top of the food chain and therefore have the right to mistreat any lower life forms. Be it fish, dogs, horses, or whatever. And they have no qualms about using any or all of the animals for profit. Personally, I would ban the ownership of birds, reptiles, and other exotic pets, destroy the puppy mills, abolish the AKC, and make spaying all dogs and cats mandatory for 5 years to decrease the populations in general. But darn it, nobody asks me.

[marauder_77868]

A baby bird has most of its adult size at about 2 weeks

[marauder_77868]

And I keep hearing "I am not an expert, BUT..." All I'm saying is educate yourselves on the specific situation before making a blanket statement. Let me ask this...how do you feel about those people that come in to a LFS and don't know any better and call the SPCA and make a complaint because those Bettas are being kept cruelly?

[Nickintex]

Those ARE baby birds at the store being mentioned. And they are at the front counter for hand raising and to be monitored by the staff. Some of them are the larger species of parrots. They are big, but still babies nonetheless. I think said store is doing a great job by keeping such close tabs on them. Definitely the opposite from a cruelty case.

[cameracorpus]

Thanks. That is good to know.

[Nickintex]

Also, they may appear to be malnourished because they do not have their adult feathers. Many times baby parrots look like a combination of a roast chicken and a pterosaur. That's just how they look. They also may vibrate, shiver and scream, which is perfectly normal for a baby parrot, and does not mean that they are painful.

[Kittysnax]

And I keep hearing "I am not an expert, BUT..." All I'm saying is educate yourselves on the specific situation before making a blanket statement. Let me ask this...how do you feel about those people that come in to a LFS and don't know any better and call the SPCA and make a complaint because those Bettas are being kept cruelly?

I used to work at a pet store and I got probably 3 calls a month from jacka44es reporting cruelty to the bettas..............the SPCA came out ONCE and was like, "this is normal. whatever" and then just called every following report. It got old FAST. Water was changed in those cups every other day, and they were fed before the change. When I worked for the fish distributioner(?) to 90% of the tropical fish stores in houston, bettas came in itty bitty heat-sealed bags with probably 2 tablespoons of water and out of every 100 bettas we'd order, only 1 or 2 were dead in the bag, sometimes none.

While I agree some things really do need to be reported, things like that (the betta/baby bird incident) people just need to do like you said, and educate themselves before shooting the gun. The local SPCA even told me its gotten to be a case of "Peter and the Wolf" to them. Call in the REAL offenses (Open untreated wounds, malnourishment, honest ABUSE) leave the typical crap alone IMO.

[nikkijean1]

i dont know enough about animals to know specifics, but please explain to me how it is healthy for them not to be able to stand up straight, their necks all bent and practically laying down 24 hrs a day, i am not pretending to know everything, but please explain this to me, i am using common sense not facts, it just does not seem like it is good for any creature