Aussie Finch Forum

Brooksy wrote:Is it easier to keep foreign birds or native birds in the US? And what do you have to do to keep native birds in the US?

finchbreeder wrote:Don't forget sir, that with weak immune systems we are also pumping them with medications and they're not the strongest that you make them to be.
1stly, I'm female. 2ndly I use no medication bar Ivomectin (wormer) (which I would do for any creature including humans because being stationary not nomadic this is a necessity) 3rdly I let all weak chicks die because I do believe in survival of the fittest. 4thly that makes you wrong in regard to my birds, but not necessarily in regard to everyones. 5thly I have not shouted down your wish to breed hybrids, just stated it is not my wish to do so. But that on those occassions when they have turned up in my avairys due to miscalculations on my part, they have been treated like everything else. If strong they survive and continue to be fed and housed till old age takes them.
LML

TailFeathers wrote:

Tiaris wrote:How is "ranting about engangered species" barking up the wrong tree? I was specifically talking about preserving the Red Siskin which has been brought to an endangered status by demand from aviculture. ie. we are the cause of it becoming endangered so it is incumbent upon us to preserve what pure stocks we have of this beautiful bird rather than wasting their breeding potential on deliberately producing hybrids with them. I don't know of any Red Factor canary breeders who need to cross Siskins with their birds to re-emphasise the red gene. Colour enhancement these days is mainly achieved through selective breeding and colour feeding.
Australian breeders don't have the luxury of a regular influx of wild-caught exotic species to replenish stocks if/when their self-sustaining breeding efforts fall short. We must rely on our ability to produce our own future breeding stock from what we have in our aviaries & preserve what we have. The US, Europe and South Africa still enjoy (or at least up until very recently have) this luxury without sufficient due care to establishing sustainable captive populations of the regularly imported exotic species.

Aviculture increases a bird population and decreases the needs from wild sources. It was done to stop poachers from poaching many animals because the supply from fur farms and the like made the sources people demanded to be cheap.

I'm sure it's not hard to trace these wild bird imports and rake the birds back in the wild or use that stock to interbreed with wild birds.

I think if someone were angry at endangered species, I'm certainly not the one who could make change. But do you know what I would do if I had the money? I'd trap wild birds and raise them for release into the wild myself. Waiting on the government to take responsibility and make change means they have to justify it through many legal loopholes and trying to find funding for it. I'd rather be at the forefront of doing what's right in this case, but I cannot.

I don't know how Australia works when it comes to the government, but I'm sure it's similar to english law and commonwealth law. Write to your government bodies to someone who will lend you an ear and is sincere about their job.