Should a bird starve free, or live caged?
Hi, this piece is not “informative”. Rather, I seek to initiate a discussion, a debate even, about a dilemma I encountered during my trip to a park in Xishuangbanna.
In the pond of the park, the above phenomenon occurred. A swan ignored the fish surrounding it and poked around for snack wrappings. This was the first sign to me that animals here weren’t treated fairly.
Walking near the bird section, I heard loud electronic music booming around the birds. Birds there looked dull, were forced to interact with aggressive visitors, and were confined to very limited space.
As a bird lover, I wanted to flee the place as soon as possible. I could not dissuade other tourists from not feeding the birds. All I could do was walk away. But just as I was about to do so, I heard an anguished series of twittering from a nearby cage.
By experience, I could tell that a bird was suffering, and quickly went to investigate. One of the parrots had accidentally left her cage and can’t get back.
Now lets look at the options I have available to me.
- Report the situation to park managers, which will most likely result in the recapture of the parrot despite the ill-treatment there.
- Walk away knowing the parrot is at risk of starvation (raised birds very likely don’t know how to hunt in the wild).
What should I do?
