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: <26A7613E.35E8@intercon.com>
Date: 20 Jul 90 19:53:34 GMT
References: <90198.165720JAHAYES@MIAMIU.BITNET> <1990Jul19.150155.7196@cbnewsj.att.com> <43165@apple.Apple.COM>
Sender: usenet@intercon.com (USENET The Magnificent)
Reply-To: kdb@macaw.intercon.com (Kurt Baumann)
Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation, Herndon, VA
Lines: 42

In article <43165@apple.Apple.COM>, chuq@Apple.COM (Smile when you say that)
writes:
> >even so, it's 
> >hard to look at the animal and not feel regret that he's doomed to 
> >a life in a domestic setting.
> 
> On the other hand, mortality of birds is MUCH higher in the wild. Life
> expectency is much lower. Your little white cockatoo doesn't have to worry
> about being eaten in the middle of the night, or starving to death, or heat
> stroke. Properly handled birds in captivity are happy and satisfied, live
> longer and are healthier. Yes, birds belong in the wild -- but that doesn't
> mean they can't be happy in captivity as well. 


Opps, let's not get too carried away here.  The fact of the matter is that
only about 1 in 10 birds survive from their spot of capture to a pet store,
the survival after that is very much up to the owner of the bird.  Unfortunatly,
most people who buy an import and haven't done a lot of reading up don't
know how to take care of the bird either, so the mortality rate continues
to be rather high.  Given that the bird goes to someone who takes the time
to learn how to take care of the bird, or eventually ends up with someone
who knows how to take cae of it, then yes the survival rate is much better 
than the wild.  But that is only if you don't look at the hundreds that die on
the way to your cage. :-(

The other problem with imports is that unfortunatly most people purchase
based on price, even those with money to spend.  This leads to people getting
birds straight out of the wild that they end up giving away, selling, etc.
and the whole cycle is repeated.  Those people are also very unlikly to go
out and spend more money on a domestic bird if they have been burned once.

I agree that the only real way to deal with this issue is to educate the
public.  I don't think that pet shops, in general, really care.  They want
to make money, and buying an Afircan Grey (read, Timneh Grey) for about $75-150
then selling it for $200-400 is pretty good profit and they can move more
of them than a domestic at $900.  Sigh.

Kurt
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