Letter From Jenny Moxham about Birds Being Living, Feeling Creatures
Letters From All-Creatures.org and The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation

Letter From Jenny Moxam as published in The Morning Bulletin
April 9, 2016

Birds are living, feeling beings with their own lives to lead and their own things to do. They are not on this earth to entertain us as Councillor Rutherford seems to think. (Zoo officially welcomes three new feathered friends, 8/4).

Ms Rutherford says the previous macaws were “such a popular attraction” it was “important to see if we could replace them as an exhibit”. Now if the birds had been taken in by the zoo because their “owners” no longer wanted them it would be acceptable but two of these birds were actually purchased from a breeder.

A wire aviary, no matter how large, is a poor substitute for the vast rainforests of South America where these birds should rightfully be swooping and swirling with their flock.

In the wild, they would mate for life and fly long distances each day in search of food. Depriving any bird of its freedom is cruel but to condemn long living birds, such as macaws, to up to 100 years of imprisonment should be regarded as a wilful act of animal cruelty.

Consequently, breeding them should be made illegal. Birds are intelligent, sensitive creatures who have as much right to freedom and happiness as we do.

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