Aussie Finch Forum

As commented above, these birds appear to have either just arrived in these shipping containers or are just heading off somewhere. The containers are clearly not being used as aviaries. In my view, the birds actually appear to be in pretty good condition. I have seen many, many shipping containers used to transport birds to the major pet shops in this country which are far less roomy and less hygienic than those shown on the video (and usually have a few dead birds in the bottom). While I agree these birds will most likely end up in pretty sterile cages as pet birds, that is no different to what we see in this country through the pet shop trade. Please don't take this the wrong way, but I wonder if the reaction to this photo would have been different if it had been labelled "Major English bird dealer shows recent shipment of African finches"? I think we may risk jumping the gun here.

I agree taken out of context this seems wrong, but somewhat less then the very poor examples set here in Australia (eg pet shops and produce agencies) on the north side of Brisbane. Look after your own back yard first and try and make a difference here.

Im sure anyone seeing birds housed like this here in Australia would be straight onto the RSPCA . As I said before this is not what we are normally used to seeing therefore it does seem a bit rough at first sight .

Thank you for the you tube , it was interesting to watch .

A very interesting selection of finches. Would love to have just 10% of what was in those cages. Then I would need more avairys so I didn't overcrowd them. They looked heathy to me, overcrowed yes and definately scared of the camera, but as someone else said, no dead birds. Sincerely hope that at least some find a good home with people who know how to breed them, and that this trapping is better controlled in the future.
LML

Just read the full thread and I must say I agree with the following:

toothlessjaws wrote: but i have to say, i ma really quite surprised by some of the comments here. i have seen virtually just as cruel practises in petshops and bird dealers in australia. we happen to have less birds in smaller cages but the overcrowding is still almost just as bad.

and

Trilobite wrote:I agree taken out of context this seems wrong, but somewhat less then the very poor examples set here in Australia (eg pet shops and produce agencies) on the north side of Brisbane. Look after your own back yard first and try and make a difference here.

I dropped into a well known dealer in Sydney on the way to the airport (wont mention the name, but it's pretty obvious) which I haven't visited for 10 years or so. Unlike my memories from 10+ years ago, the conditions in many cages were apalling, far worse than the pakistan videos. Many of the cages were absolutely filthy. I can understand the floor getting filthy pretty quick giiven the number of birds, but some of the perches were caked with thick faeces - clearly hadn't been cleaned for yonks. And many finches looked to be a bit too close to heaven for my liking. I don't understand from a commercial point of view why dealers would accept this level of hygiene - it certainly prevented me buying (or selling) birds. Hopefully, they'll read this and be prompted to up their game.

I'm not against bird dealers at all. In particular I'm a great supporter of Crystal Pet and Wire, whose store is always well maintained and stock alert and healthy.

Look at the cage of Napoleons in the back R hand corner at 0.48-0.50 of the africans - I scoop of the net and we could replenish our bloodlines for the next 30 years.

Blimey, you've got good eyesight. I had to watch about 10 times before I spotted them.
Here's a screen dump...