Abstract
You are about to read a cynical article that has been brewing inside of me for some time. I am certainly not trying to imply that any of you had anything to do with the situation, only that we, as aviculturists, often fail to unite
ur voices against our worst enemies.
Because our business of raising and caring for birds is a charismatic one, we often overlook the most important things and donate our time and money to the most "popula r" agenda of the times. If only we could re-focus our efforts to take care of ourselves, we would have the power to overcome many of the obstacles that are threatening our livelihood.
I hadn't noticed how far apart we all had drifted until about 1991 when the "Wild Bird Conservation Act" was still in committee. It seemed that no one understood the importance of stopping
this law before it passed. The pet owners and smaller breeders thought it wa only a problem for the big guys ... "we don't import birds anyway," they said, "it will have no effect on us whatsoever." The big breeders said that "we have all the bi re.ls we want, if importation closes down our birds will be worth more money." No one seemed to see the real point in this law, control by our government and by non-governmental agencies. They had an agenda to stop the importation of all birds, captive bred or wild-caught. Using the statistics and horror films from the trapping trade of wild-caught birds in Third World nations, they succeec.lec.I.
The full effect of this law is yet to be realized by any of us. Our Congressmen and Committeemen that die.I bother to write to the government were given a "coined" letter of answer that read "we are nor stopping legitimate breeders from exchanging their young or from importing birds for their breeding efforts; there will be a section of the law where any approved cooperativebreec.ling program will allow these breeders to import bi re.ls." It wasn't exactly a lie, but it is not the total truth either. Now that the law has been voted in, try to establish a cooperative breeding program and actually import bi.re.ls. lt doesn't matter if you are trying to bring in captive bred babies or wild-caught endangered species, the regulations are the same. Don't blame the government, it is our fault for allowing this ingenious piece of Control legislationio be passed
To date there have been few who have applied to form a "cooperative breeding program" under the law. The governmental people at the U.S. Fish and Wilc.lli.fe Service seem ve1y willing to assist you and to approve these programs if possible. One of the biggest problems is that the law requires publication of all proposed programs in the Federal Register prior to approval. This allows the non-governmental agencies or anyone to make comment or ask for
specific information on your program before it is approved. Many organizations are out there watching the Register so they can stop you from getting an exception under this law. They do not want any birds to be imported for private aviculrure
You probably think that I am exaggerating a bit just for effect. Well, l wish that were the case. However, the Humane Society of the United States, several other animal humane and animal rights groups, and even the \Xlilc.llife Conservation Society (formerly the New York Zoological Society) are making comments to the Federal Register publications to keep any private individual from importing any birds. We supported these orgaruzanons and made them what they are today. Don't send them any more of your money111 \\le have created a huge monster and it is now attacking us.
Where were the bird clubs and other aviculrural organizations when the talks were taking place to stop this law' Where was the Association of Avian Veterinarians? Where were the bird breeders and fanciers' Where were the suppliers and seed companies, the toy companies, the cage companies, the brooder manufacturers' \\le were left out in the coldll! Only 96 lerrers were received by the government that requested that the law be changed to accommodate bird breeding in the United States. Those 96 letters were to represent the thousands of breeders in this country. It saddens me greatly to see that we, as Americans, are slowly losing any rights we had. Democracy drifts very parallel to Communism if you allow the government to make all the decisions. We must get our act together and fight for our own rights. No longer can we sit around and hope that someone else will do it for us. The birds that we keep are endangered in the natural habitat. .. not in the cages we keep them in. Why is it so difficult to convince the many animal rights groups that we are doing a justice to the birds' \X!hen the last Umbrella Cockatoo is killed in the wild to be eaten or made into a head-dress, there will still be thousands in cages breeding and surviving that wrath. That is more than we can say for the Carolina Parakeet.
Care for a I ittle more cynicism' Let's look at our fund raising efforts over the past few years. The thousands of bird clubs and thousands of organizations that we belong to are raising hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.