Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!intercon!news From: kdb@macaw.intercon.com (Kurt Baumann) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: Re: Smuggling/slight "indoor" slam Message-ID: <26A4B6E5.12DB@intercon.com> Date: 18 Jul 90 19:22:12 GMT References: <90198.165720JAHAYES@MIAMIU.BITNET> Sender: usenet@intercon.com (USENET The Magnificent) Reply-To: kdb@macaw.intercon.com (Kurt Baumann) Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation, Herndon, VA Lines: 52 In article <90198.165720JAHAYES@MIAMIU.BITNET>, JAHAYES@MIAMIU.BITNET writes: > The point is NOT "don't keep indoor birds" but should perhaps be > "don't keep endangered species indoors" unless you're a zoological > garden. I have no real wish to start up a flamefest on the moral > value of caging wild birds (though I suppose my bias already shows), > but merely wish to draw to everyone's attention the fact that keeping > some birds is illegal (if they appear on the CITES appendix 1). > Comments are welcome; I suppose flames are, too, if you must. Use > your best judgement when deciding whether to post or e-mail, however. Ok, well I don't agree with you. And here is why. The Washington DC zoo has two Palm Cockatoos which they are "breeding". These birds (appendix 1) are on display, and are subjected to all of the traffic passing by. Cockatoos are not easy to breed when they are given lots of room and privacy. The person taking care of the birds admitted that they do not know anything about parrots, he knows lots about raptors. These Palms are being feed dog food and Hartz Mountain (so I have been told by someone who asked the zoo). Now I have 2 breeding pairs of Moluccan and Goffin Cockatoos, that are in an environment that allows them privacy, plenty of good food, and lots of room. I am a private breeder the Moluccans are on Cites Appendix 1. I think that if you looked at the two situations even you would agree that the birds in my possesion are more likly to breed than the ones at the Washington Zoo. It occurs to me that what bothers most people is that some breeders make money off of breeding the birds, for some reason this is thought of as bad. After all of the money that I have put into food, housing, vet bills, and time taking care of these birds I don't expect to ever get into the black, but I do expect to successfully breed these birds and help increase the worldwide population of them. Something that as far as I can tell some Zoo's (not all) are playing at it. Most Zoos do not have the money, time, facilities to properly setup a breeding situation for endangered species. Private individuals are much more likly to foot the bill and be able to deal with this. This also has the effect of having more birds in breeding situations than ever would be possible given all of the Zoos in the world working on it. Now there is one thing that I think should happen. I believe that anyone breeding (and it should be open to anyone, and I mean anyone) endangered birds have to obtain a permit that requires them to provide information about their success, failures, and general information to a central database. In this way people would be adding to the information about these birds and in the long run would help to increase the success rate in breeding endangered birds. Also this would keep track of breeding pairs so that the genetic pool could be kept clean and even expanded. The last item on my wish list would be that Cites allow some (I don't want to try and define this one) endangered birds out of their countries to help keep the genetic pool viable. -- InterCon Systems Corporation 703.709.9890 703.709.9896 FAX