#get less scrutiny than dog breeders re health problems but also we are all just used to regularly encountering dogs that are genetic messes

[wild-at-mind]

Any time a bird is in captivity of any kind without fail there’s someone who shows up and goes ‘:( so sad, it should be FREE!’ Which, I’m very aware of the problems with cagebirds, but someone does this every time including when the bird in question is very clearly a genetic freak of some sort. For example, a rescue aviary near me used to have a lovely fantail dove, who according to volunteers was extremely friendly and loved cuddles and sitting on people’s heads. She’s passed away now, sadly, but on the aviary facebook there’s an old video of her and someone has put one of those comments along the lines of she should be in the wild. But she was so visibly a product of human selective breeding it was unreal. She had a huge, bulgy chest and her neck was bent so far back that the resting position of her head was on her back. If her eyes weren’t on the sides of her head she wouldn’t have been able to see over her own chest. Not all fantail doves look like this, but this one was so extreme looking that they had a little sign on the aviary reassuring people she was alright. I just wondered where exactly this commenter imagined she would belong if all the birds in the aviary were released into the wild and somehow back into their ideal habitats. There’s nowhere in the world outside of in the care of humans where a bird looking like that would be remotely ok.

#i'm going to start saying 'oh how sad #it should be FREE :( ' when i see a dog #honestly i miss this sweet dove so much #you may wonder what her quality of life was like and tbh all signs pointed to 'fine' #pigeon fanciers and breeders of some poultry like the chickens with vestigial wings on their feet and those weird long tall ducks #get less scrutiny than dog breeders re health problems but also we are all just used to regularly encountering dogs that are genetic messes #with a bird it's a bit of a shock at first #but it's worth also remembering that the farm animals we eat are also genetic freaks #my only point really is that people are very very weird about birds in captivity of any kind #even a rescue aviary- they have 2 incidents in the past 20 years of people realeasing all the birds and then guess what they died #because most are tropical species and need the heater #they are as happy as possible in that aviary i think #many common cagebird species are flock birds and in this aviary they have their flock and social interaction #it's big enough for flying and they have loads of enrichment and can make as much noise as they want as it's in a big park #in a perfect world no one would breed genetic freak animals and there wouldn't be tonens of uncared for cagebirds that need homes #but we don't live in that world #forgot to say that the reason i say the dove's quality of life was probably fine was because of her behaviour and feather condition