Just When Did Importation of Exotics Cease?

[jusdeb]

Its an eye opener hey B/G ... and yes how hard would it be to quaranteen them ? And as said pigeons and chooks can come in form god knows where so whats the beef with finches .... the only thing that comes to my mind is that they may escape and become feral ...like thats really a likelihood of happening .

Cant wait to hear what avishoot and dano find out about it all ....

When will the authorities learn that by not allowing birds to be imported , quaranteened etc that they are in fact the reason that a black market is created thus bringing in possibly diseased birds .....

[garymc]

I do have a copy of a video - VCR - which showed a NZ importation finch shipment (birds were not coming to Oz) - probably no older than late 80's but probably 90's . No longer have a VCR so can't get dates etc but I got a copy around 2000 give or take a couple of years. Housed in the same finch holding area were cages of chickens - with these chooks being tested to see if they had picked up anything along the way. Can't recall whether the chooks were clear at all times - but do know the end result - all finches euthenased!!!!!!!!!!!

Its a pretty lousy copy but worth a look. Anyone out there that can convert it to DVD would be much appreciated - PM me and I will try and find it organise getting it organised - might even be able to do a few copies and flog them off at a nominal with proceeds going back to AFF

[bleeding green]

Its an eye opener hey B/G ... and yes how hard would it be to quaranteen them ? And as said pigeons and chooks can come in form god knows where so whats the beef with finches .... the only thing that comes to my mind is that they may escape and become feral ...like thats really a likelihood of happening .

Cant wait to hear what avishoot and dano find out about it all ....

But pigeons can become feral too, especially racing pigeons which ar ebeing let out of their cages deliberatly. and as already stated, they (fowl) are the birds most at risk of carrying bird flu. It just doesn't make sense. There has to be more to it.
I wonder if any government departments work closely with each other on these issues. Probably not I'd suggest. I haven't found any govt. departments that work with each other to serve the public the way they should.

[bleeding green]

I do have a copy of a video - VCR - which showed a NZ importation finch shipment (birds were not coming to Oz) - probably no older than late 80's but probably 90's . No longer have a VCR so can't get dates etc but I got a copy around 2000 give or take a couple of years. Housed in the same finch holding area were cages of chickens - with these chooks being tested to see if they had picked up anything along the way. Can't recall whether the chooks were clear at all times - but do know the end result - all finches euthenased!!!!!!!!!!!

Its a pretty lousy copy but worth a look. Anyone out there that can convert it to DVD would be much appreciated - PM me and I will try and find it organise getting it organised - might even be able to do a few copies and flog them off at a nominal with proceeds going back to AFF

Where are you located? I could and would be keen to get it onto dvd.

[finchbreeder]

GaryMc your location is not filled in, but as I believe you are in WA let me talk to the son. He is a techie and located near Murdoch uni.
LML

[Jayburd]

sounds interesting.

[GregH]

This thread has resulted in some insightful, intriguing sensitive and exasperating aspects of finch aviculture and aviculturists. There is plenty of evidence that legal prohibition doesn’t result in the actual elimination of any activity but certainly criminalises any practitioners. The sixty plus years of prohibition on finch imports hasn’t eliminated aviculture nor have avicultural stocks held resulted in the establishment of feral bird populations. So what is the big deal? That particular furphy has it’s roots in the actions of acclimatisation societies that sought to “enrich” the natural environment or make it more like “home” (England). I don’t know if any are still operating but I know when I attended UNE in the mid 1980s one such society was still stocking the steams around Armidale voracious exotic predatory fish that were driving endemic galaxias and other species to extinction. My bet is that they still are because the introduced species were trout and they are “just fish” and people want to catch, kiss and release or eat them.

Aviculture doesn’t seek to free birds into the environment, unlike pigeon racing, so what can possibly be the difficulty for regulators? There is no disease that finches have that poultry and pigeons can not host yet these are legally imported. Are the quarantine procedures used for the detection of avian diseases unsuitable for finches yet are valid for poultry and pigeons? I seriously doubt it. If aviculturist were to persistently and rigorously pursue this with the authorities would they acknowledge the inconstancies and errors in their logic and rectify the situation for finch keepers? Again I seriously doubt it. More than likely they would close the “loop hole” and drive the poultry and pigeon keepers into criminal activities as they seek to maintain their interests. While the risk of importation has to be weighed up against the benefit of introduction one has to question what benefits come from racing pigeons that doesn’t come from keeping finches? The contribution of racing pigeons to the economy is surely not larger than that of other forms of recreational aviculture. In the case of poultry what is the difference between ornamental and commercial breeds of Gallus domesticus other than a label? As has been pointed out poultry are the most likely group of birds to be kept in situations which expose them to wild birds and are kept in far larger number than birds kept in recreational aviculture and that surely poses an enormous risk compared to how finches are kept.

Properly regulated importation of managed populations would avoid the dangers of disease introduction and actually contribute to the preservation of species and would keep otherwise decent people away from criminal activities. In this day and age of full cost recovery, implementation of controlled importation would come at no cost to society and little risk to the environment. The continued intractable stance of the regulatory authorities against importation smacks of political interference and face-keeping rather than scientifically based arguments that are then tested to ascertain their validity.

[Jayburd]

Greg on the whole I agree with your post

Aviculture doesn’t seek to free birds into the environment unlike pigeon racing so what can [possibly be the difficulty for regulators

We don't seek to, but that is not to say that we do not. I'm sure we'll all have had our own experiences with escaped birds, and unless a safety door is constructed, this is difficult to control.
Despite the fact that most/many escaped exotics would die quickly in the varied australian climate, (depending on where you are of course), you can see why the government would be a bit paranoid - we do have a very bad record with introduced species,both intentionally and unintentionally released.

[jusdeb]

Yet its ok for the CSIRO to bring in such delightful citters as cane toads ....epic fail on so many levels ...

And as horrible as this seems I can kind of understand a dedicated finch keeper buying a illegally bought in bird for the sake of the species they are trying to improve on ....now dont get up me for that Im just saying some people are so passionate about finches that it would be something they would contemplate.

[iaos]

In terms of feral populations of finches in Aust. I believe that the 5 species (greenfinch, goldfinch, spice finch and house & tree sparrows) have all been intentionally released by acclimatisation societies. At times there have been other feral finch populations that proved to be unsustainable such as white-winged wydah, black headed munia and grendier weaver. What other unsustainable feral finch populations do people know of?

I suppose that the argument could be that there is a risk that species of finches and parrots could be wild caught, whereas chooks and pigeons are domestic.

Perhaps as other counties such as England and New Zealand enforce stringent import bans bird keepers in those countries could convince authorities that there is no chance of the birds being wild caught and some trading could occur.