Why buying a bird from a pet shop or breeder is not the same as rescuing it.

Why buying a bird from a pet shop or breeder is not the same as rescuing it.

By Klaas Kingma

While it is very admirable to want to give a bird from a pet shop or breeder who is disabled or has been there for a while a better life there are a lot of things to consider before buying the bird.

Firstly, if you buy the disabled bird, you are telling the pet shop or breeder that someone will buy them which will lead to them breeding more birds and selling more birds with deformities and disabilities. Unfortunately, there are only so many birds that you can financially afford to buy and are physically able to care for.

Secondly, if you go in and buy the older bird from a pet shop they will have that bird replaced with a new younger bird by the end of the week and then you have just put another bird in the exact same position as the one you decided to buy. Buying from a pet shop also tells the pet shop owner that there is a demand for more birds and they will go buy more birds which leads to breeders breeding more and eventually there will not he enough demand for them and you’ll have another older bird waiting for someone to “rescue” it in the pet shop.

Finally, by supporting the pet trade you are telling breeders that there is a demand for more birds which leads to more breeders with more birds who won’t be able to find a home as well as more breeders who will breed irresponsibly because they’ll get more birds that way.

This does not mean that all breeders are horrible. There are ethical breeders, they exist and can be wonderful people, but that doesn’t make the trade right. It’s the trade that turns sentient beings into commodities so that babies are churned out for profit, and end up as young birds back at a pet shop, maybe being sold multiple times as uneducated owners ‘surrender’ (sell) them again and again because ‘they are worth money’, or finder keepers mentality of other folks who find a stray bird and keep it because ‘it’s valuable’. Or birds sold when families’ circumstances change.

Here are some of the stories of birds who have crossed our paths who passed away or have lifelong problems due to the irresponsibility of their breeders:

Hopefully reading this article has shown you some of the realities of breeders that should not be supported at all but have been supported by people trying to give those birds a better life. All these owners had to make the difficult decision of whether it was worth supporting the breeder to give the bird a better life and if you decide to do the same hopefully knowing some of the terrible things birds endure will help you make this very difficult decision.

Steele is a cockatiel who was surrendered to us by his owners who bought him from a breeder and then realized they would be unable to hand-rear him themselves. He unfortunately had chlamydia and a very rare lung worm which he got from the breeder and was never medicated for and he passed away.

Popcorn is a cockatiel who was bought from a breeder but was extremely wild still. We believe that the breeder had cut off her and her cage mates’ tail feathers so they could fit more birds into a smaller cage her wings were also cut by the breeder to the extent that they bled – she may never be able to fly due to feather follicle damage. After the trauma, she has experienced she is unlikely to become fully tame.

Ghandi is an African Grey who has made quite a large impact on us all. Her owner is a pretty big supporter of the work we do and team member Abi regularly fid sits her. Recently it came out that Ghandi had a fault in her digestive tract that developed as she aged and she also had a malformed foot from birth. This means that they had to bypass her throat in order to feed her directly into her stomach because she physically couldn’t swallow her own food.

Yennefer was an Eclectus baby that a supporter bought because she had issues. She was blind, and deaf which were confirmed. She was also less than half the size she should have been developmentally, and wasn’t able to process nutrients efficiently in order to grow. She also had digestive issues which prevented her from eating as much as she needed. She also had scissor beak and splayed legs and all of these issues led to her not being able to be fully assessed. She had to be PTS because the vet recommended it as the most humane option.

Hopefully reading this article has shown you some of the realities of breeders that should not be supported at all but have been supported by people trying to give those birds a better life. All these owners had to make the difficult decision of whether it was worth supporting the breeder to give the bird a better life and if you decide to do the same hopefully knowing some of the terrible things birds endure will help you make this very difficult decision.