Cage & Aviary Birds Magazine Cage & Aviary Birds 5762 Back Issue

Direct opposition to birdkeeping from the anti brigade seems to be at a low ebb. Yet there’s still a mass of ignorance festering out there. Some people persist in the belief that any bird will be better off if you let it out of its cage. We need to nail this lie loud and clear whenever we come across it. This week on page 4, Nick West describes an idiotic attack on a sanctuary in Northern Ireland, during which 30 aviaries were slashed open and 26 birds – mostly non-native owls – were forced from their homes. Let’s spell this out: if you release a captive-bred bird into the wild, the odds are you’re not “setting it free”, you’re condemning it to death because it won’t be able to forage. A minority of non-native predators that escape or are released do adapt. This can be bad news. Look at the mink, “liberated” by fur protestors, only to devastate Britain’s riverside wildlife. Some zealots,
we must accept, will always believe that confining birds is evil in any circumstances. But most people are open to reason, and the best “anti-anti” measure we can take is to show them our content, healthy companion, cage or aviary stock. That’s the thing with birds: if they’re happy and well cared-for, it’s pretty obvious. Recently I had an email correspondence with a wheelchair-bound fancier who had attended a bird auction organised by a CBS. There, he said, he’d endured some
needless rudeness from one of the society’s officials. Sympathising, I said that in my direct experience this was totally atypical of CBS members and events. He agreed. Still, I thought I’d share this, merely to stress how a bit of thoughtlessness can undo clubs’ efforts to recruit new
members. (As an example of the latter, look at the splendid efforts of Mid Cornwall CBS, reported on page 2.) I hope all goes well with your club or society activities this week – and in any case, enjoy your birds.