Media Releases

  • 7 June 2017

    Strengthening Bird Welfare and Protecting our Birds

    Avian Behaviourist Paris Yves Read is frustrated with the continuing bird abuse at Bird sales in Victoria.

    “Since I complained annually to the Victorian government from 2014, Victorian bird groups have had 3 years to ‘ruffle their feathers’ and get their act together regarding bird welfare- but nothing has changed for the birds.” Yves Read said.

    Bird groups and the Victorian government have done nothing to show that they are listening to Victorians who want urgent attention for bird welfare, including bird sales and breeding banned.

    Judging from the sale at Skye last Sunday 28 May, once again, birds were forced in small display boxes and terrorised in the presence of a noisy and un-natural environment- where their eyes and body behaviour displayed fear, forced to coup up in dirty rusty cages and where their foods were on the box base amongst their faeces.

    The sellers’ faces said it all.

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  • 7 June 2017

    Andrews Government Fails Again to Stop Companion Bird Abuse

    Avian Behaviourist Paris Yves Read is frustrated with the continuing bird abuse at Bird sales in Victoria.

    A recent petition to save birds signed by Victorians has been ignored, once again, by the Andrews government and his ministers.

    “Since I complained to the Victorian government in 2014, Victorian bird groups have had 3 years to ‘ruffle their feathers’ and get their act together regarding bird welfare- but the conditions have not changed- in fact they have become worse,” Yves Read said.

    Bird groups and the Victorian government have done nothing to show that they are listening to Victorians who want urgent attention to bird welfare, and bird sales and breeding banned.

  • 22 May 2017

    BAN BIRD SALE! Victorian Aviculturists are using birds as breeding slaves and for profit

    It’s not only dogs who suffer by being confined in cramped spaces such as in puppy farms.

    According to Melbourne-based bird behaviourist Paris Yves Read of Let Companion Birds Fly, our feathered friends also experience physical and emotional trauma from being bred and kept in small cages and boxes by backyard breeders, commercial bird breeders, pet shops, markets and, particularly at bird expos such as the upcoming Skye Bird Expo in Melbourne’s South East, on 28 May 2017.

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  • 25 July 2014

    Bird groups at Warragul breach code of practice

    Gippsland Cage Bird Society Companion Bird Breeders, Traders, Exhibitors and Experts, breached the Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI) Victorian Bird Welfare & Code of Practice for the Housing of Caged Birds, at their Bird Sale at Warragul on 20 July 2014.

    The website of the Gippsland Branch of the Society states: ‘The club is dedicated to promoting Aviculture, Education, Environment and the well being of birds ,both in captivity and in the wild’- there was no indication of such welfare or education at the Warragul Bird Sale.

    The Code of Practice for Bird Sales pamphlet provided at the Warragul Sale was not implemented and monitored by the organiser’s stewards, who should have been in continuous attendance at the venue.

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  • 23 June 2014

    Bird groups breach code of practice

    In Melbourne, the Mornington Peninsula Aviculturist Society held their annual Bird Sale & Expo at Skye, on Sunday. Bird Sales are conducted weekly at various venues around Victoria (and Australia), where companion/ captive bird breeders and existing and potential companion bird owners go to buy, trade and sell birds. But the event on Sunday looked more like a street market in the back streets of China/ Indonesia/ India.

    ‘The birds' screeching could be heard from outside the building and the fear in the birds’ body behaviour and eyes was physically obvious.

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