The little bird at the pet store

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ranechild
Posts: 295
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 12:57 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD

The little bird at the pet store

Post by ranechild »

I was curious about this guy... I thought grey was a dominant color... is this grey turquoise?
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This little baby was very friendly and curious... they wanted $500 for him. His feathers were so scraggly I wanted to save him from the pet store and give him all the toys in the world. I was almost crying by the time I left. I would help him, but we can't support more birdies right now. Though, he would match nicely with our quaker parrot (color-wise).
MissK
Posts: 3011
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2012 3:46 pm
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Re: The little bird at the pet store

Post by MissK »

You can sneak him a nut once in a while....... Maybe a foot toy....
-MissK
ranechild
Posts: 295
Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 12:57 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD

Re: The little bird at the pet store

Post by ranechild »

I was planning to do just that :) He might be bestowed an almond tonight.
InTheAir
Posts: 2040
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:24 pm

Re: The little bird at the pet store

Post by InTheAir »

Aww he's so cute!
I avoid looking at pets in stores, it's too depressing to have to leave them there.
Give him a nut from me!
MissK
Posts: 3011
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2012 3:46 pm
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Re: The little bird at the pet store

Post by MissK »

Hey, While you're there, please check the availability and price of heated perches - smallest size- for me?
-MissK
Donovan
Posts: 833
Joined: Tue Oct 08, 2013 4:18 pm
Location: North Carolina

Re: The little bird at the pet store

Post by Donovan »

InTheAir wrote:Aww he's so cute!
I avoid looking at pets in stores, it's too depressing to have to leave them there.
Give him a nut from me!

I have this with cats. My local pet store always has cats sleeping in display windows. I don't feel too bad for the birds because they're in large groups with toys and friends. But the cats are all alone and they just lay there being gawked at.
sheyd
Posts: 1293
Joined: Fri Dec 12, 2008 11:22 pm

Re: The little bird at the pet store

Post by sheyd »

Yep, that's right- he is a TurquoiseGrey. Grey is dominant as is Turquoise in Blue (Turq is recessive to Wildtype)


................
I detest animals in petshops... Petshops encourage impulse buys and encourage the irresponsible breeding of animals through byb who sell to petshops-make quick profits- and start again.

I won't ever support such a practice (petshop or byb)--
zentoucan
Posts: 151
Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 10:45 pm

Re: The little bird at the pet store

Post by zentoucan »

One of our local Petshops has stopped selling kittens and puppies and has joined forces with a animal rescue group and are selling rescued animals. when I spoke to the staff as to why, the reply was, that there are too many cats and dogs being rescued and re-homed, if not successfully re-homed they are put down. they feel that this is un-ethical and immoral treatment of these animals. I enquired about birds that are rescued and
was told that a lot of birds are released into the wild, this action was done by very irresponsible people and any surrendered birds are taken to animal sanctuaries and put into large aviaries. where they are accessed to see if they can be re-homed if not they live out there lives in these sanctuaries.

I asked if they sell any of these surrendered birds and was told no, as most surrendered birds are of a larger species and they are not equipped to hold these large birds comfortably and happy. they only sell birds the size of cockatiels and smaller. I was very pleased to see a petshop that is changing the way they sell animals. this might be the start of change

I do agree that most animals are brought on an impulse but if people had a bit more control than there wouldn't be a demand that require irresponsible breeding of animals.
Donovan
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Location: North Carolina

Re: The little bird at the pet store

Post by Donovan »

I hate knowing that so many cats and dogs are put down. Personally I think there should be a law making you have your cat or dog fixed so it can't reproduce and only licensed breeders could have un-fixed cats or dogs.

same with birds.. I'm sure there are more breeders than customers. Like.. I could breed my IRN with a female.. sell the babies... say they have 4 babies.. i bet 3 of the 4 would die young because of having crap homes... who's to say...

or better yet... free neutering / spaying for cats and dogs. Ultimately it'll be cheaper than the kill drug.
Skyes_crew
Posts: 1946
Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2013 12:49 pm
Location: Hawaii

Re: The little bird at the pet store

Post by Skyes_crew »

Here in Hawaii, almost all of the pet shops have abandoned the sale of cats and dogs. Hawaii passed a law stating that in order to sell domesticated animals, you had to have a licensed vet tech on staff. Problem solved. Most pet stores don't want to pay that expense. Large chains have adoption events every weekend. Our humane society is extremely overrun and our ASPCA is not even taking in animals at this time. Byb is out of control here. In all walks of life lol. Craigslist is a breeding ground for greedy people. And don't get me started on the amount of feral colonies of parrots on the island.
I am owned by my birds...and I wouldn't have it any other way :D

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MissK
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Location: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Re: The little bird at the pet store

Post by MissK »

Being, personally, in favour of smaller government and fewer laws, I could not endorse a law that would force me to spay or neuter my pet. I bet I surprised you with that, and surprised those who know me better even more.

The fact is that laws really only control the law-abiding. How many people do you know who have not, for instance, bothered to get a license for their dog or cat? How many let their rabies vaccine slide? How many let their animal live day in, day out, in need of medical care and never getting it? All of these things are against the law in Maryland, where I live, yet I can assure you I see people guilty of them each and every day.

If breeding were legally restricted to a registered group of individuals, the number of animals available would theoretically drop. I think this is what you are hoping for, with the law you suggested. Hopefully, with less animals available, less would be misused by humans. Unfortunately, we also know, due to the nature of commerce, that as soon as a resource (here, animals) becomes limited the price goes up. I'm afraid that in the real world, this would just provide added incentive for registered and unregistered breeders alike to produce as many young animals as they could, pricing them as high as they could. If you think about it, isn't this just what the puppy millers are doing? And guess what - I'll bet my bottom dollar millers would be sanctioned by the USDA.

Is that what we want? Sanctioned millers and underground byb's cranking out as many pups and kittens as they can to fill the demand, all the while charging the moon? Worst, I imagine, would be the unregistered byb's. In hiding, they would not be able to provide vet services for their breeding stock or young. Do you think a law would stop them? Does it stop pit fighters? Does the name of Michael Vick ring a bell? He was stopped, *eventually*. How many others are out there? Breeding, I think, would be much easier to hide.

If, in what I would consider to be a very, very slim chance, a registered breeders only law were to succeed, how far would it go? To what extreme could it be carried? With the current interest in breed-specific legislation, what breeds of animals would be granted *no breeders at all*? PETA has done you one better - I think if you research well, you will find they hope to reduce the pet population of dogs and cats to zero. Granted, I think it quite unlikely that a restricted breeding law could go that far, that horribly wrong, but once a popular movement is set truly in motion there is little controlling it.

There is a bright side. Many of those who would be likely to obey a restricted breeders law are equally likely to *already* be requiring a spay or neuter with the animals they sell. When I shopped for a purebred dog, a decade ago, I found just about everyone I spoke with had a spay/neuter clause in their sale contract. Rescues insist on spay/neuter. Even my local dog pound put in writing that they would repo my dog if they did not receive confirmation of spay/neuter within a specified time period after sale.

I realize, at this point, that I should be offering an alternate solution. I'm more sorry than you can know that I don't have one. Maybe we could meet in the middle. Perhaps pet shops could be required to deal only in spayed/neutered animals. They could pass the cost along to the buyer, and that alone might deter sales. But probably not. I know someone who actually spent more than her mortgage payment on a mixed breed pup from a shop, and kept it less than six months. My point is that making it costly doesn't make a buyer smarter or more considerate; it just makes a breeder and seller better paid.

About the only truly useful suggestion I have is that the cost of licensing an unaltered pet might be made significantly higher than the cost of licensing one that could not reproduce. Currently, in Maryland, I get a discount of a few dollars for keeping spayed dogs. I'm betting if those who keep unaltered animals had to pay, say fifty dollars extra with the annual tag fee, they might soon find it in their best interest to get that pet fixed. That would really only address the problem of the careless owner, the "accidental byb". Honestly, it might make a good start. How do we help the birds? I have no idea.
-MissK
Skyes_crew
Posts: 1946
Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2013 12:49 pm
Location: Hawaii

Re: The little bird at the pet store

Post by Skyes_crew »

You hit the nail on the head with that one. It's all about supply and demand. On an island where some breeds are scarce I've seen this in action one too many times. Ever see a $5000 price tag on a bull dog pup in a pet shop? I have. And sadly, someone paid it. But don't worry, because that same dog will be on craigslist in a few months for a steal at $2500. There are people that troll craigslist and snatch up all the free to good home animals and then turn around and sell them for a living. Like its an ebay sales job or something. We have a city wide spay/neuter program here. It doesn't work. The city offers a reduced cost for spay/neuter if you buy the certificate through them. They then have a list of participating vets. It's a whopping $50 for dogs and $25 for cats. It's only $10 for microchipping. If they can't get people to pay that amount, I don't think anything will work. The problem right off the bat is that animals are viewed as a commodity. My personal belief is that the government needs to regulate the pricing of these animals. If the professional breeder can't get anymore than the byb, then maybe the overproduction of these poor creatures will stop. But that breaks all kinds of first amendment laws so I guess this will always be an issue. Unless each pet is required to be microchipped and our vets and police are required to scan each animal they come across, there is no way to track and record the amount of animals on this planet.
I am owned by my birds...and I wouldn't have it any other way :D

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zentoucan
Posts: 151
Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 10:45 pm

Re: The little bird at the pet store

Post by zentoucan »

I believe that only registered breeders should be able to sell animals and these animals prior to being sold, must be de-sexed, micro-chipped and put onto a database of who purchased the animals, that the local government and vets have access to. This is not about forcing someone to de-sex their animals. This is about preventing un-registered and uncontrolled breeding which is affecting the environment and causes the destruction of animals in huge numbers worldwide. I'm not hoping for animals availability to drop, it just seems that there are too many animals available. I'm hoping for the ethical and moral treatment of animals by controlling the breeding and sale of animals. if the animals welfare groups focus on the problem and approached it in a manner that would work well for all parties, not just their own. then great things can be achieved.
un-registered breeders need to be fined and their animals removed so that unlawful breeding and sale is not viable.
in Australia the RSPCA has the power to remove animals, issue fines and bring criminal charge against companies and individuals. therefore it would not be a big stretch to add these duties. this is not something that will happen overnight. but in time, I believe this can be achieved.
also by putting these animals onto a database that vets have access to, an automatic reminder can be sent to owner informing of vaccine injections. after all the government can send out reminders for car license's and registration. it's not hard we just need people to change their part of the world for the better if we have a positive approach, not a negative one.

to solve a problem you first need to identify the causes, then put methods in place to eliminate or control the causes. I believe the main cause of this is un-registered and un-controlled breeding and sales.
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