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SJ 16 years, 4 months ago.
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Which do you think a "Pet bird is?
Domesticated, or Wild?
Here is a favorite quote, but I don’t remember who said it, but it can often times be found on the Manhatten New York bird club site.
"God loved birds so he created trees.
Man loved birds so he created cages.
My opinion?
All birds, are wild, even are so called "Pet bird."
We should never treat them like human children.
They are birds.
but a bird bred by humans should never be released into the wild. They wouldn’t know the first thing about surviving in the wild because we taught them from day one to rely on us.
So, what is your opinion?
Domestic, or wild?All animals are wild when it comes down to it, but I belive the point is how wild they are and how we treat them.
I agree that nothing other than a human child should be treated as such, dont get me wrong I love my dog more than anything in the world, and Id give up everything for him including my own life just so he could live another day and I call him my baby all the time… but thats not the point, hes a dog and as such he has to earn his food as I see fit for him to do so… be it giving his paw or bringing in the shopping. He sleeps where I tell him to (as we move round quite a bit) and knows the pack structure.
Anyway going slightly off topic there… I think that the main problem with ‘pet’ birds is when it comes to parrots, including love birds, parakeets and larger ones such as african greys and macaws. They are pretty much as intelligent as a young child, and so the ‘owners’ tend to treat them as such. Which because they are not leads to the problems and causes us all to debate whether or not these animals should be kept as pets.
In truth I dont think we should have pets, its not really natural lets face it, but that isnt going to stop everyone from having them and isnt going to stop animals needing rescuing resulting in myself and other animal lovers ‘keeping’ ‘pets’.
Sorry…. getting back to your question… parrots are definatly wild. There is no such thing present as a domestic parrot… domestiction is formed over thousands of years of selective breeding to result in something that helps/aids humans in some way. In the same way birds of prey are not domesticated, ok you can argue that they have been used by man to hunt, but they are doing what comes naturally and are no different than a truely wild member of their species other than that they have been reared by man/imprinted/habituated dependant on the individual animal.
I know this is a long post but its something I have always felt strongly about, lets face it the only reason we have ‘pets’ is because we are so facinated by other animals, and since its easyer and more logical for us we have brought these magnificant creatures into our lives, instead of going to see them as nature intended.
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