Your Budgie is a Wild Animal!

Many people who scream that 'wild' animals should not be pets are often OK with keeping certain species like cockatiels and budgies in cages, even though they are obviously not domesticated. 

Even the Humane Society of the United States approves the keeping of budgies, a small parrot species, as pets, despite the fact no cage can offer the same amount of space of a wild budgerigar.

 "Certain species, such as cockatiels, budgerigars, finches, doves, and lovebirds, can thrive as pets with proper care."

I wonder how they decided this? Apparently bigger birds like parrots are 'too social', yet this video seems to show plenty of that. I guess the HSUS gets to pick which animals are dumb enough for a cage.

Watch a flock of budgies that are so desperate for water, they refuse to evade a falcon eying them for dinner.

Of course, captive budgies enjoy falcon-attack free comfort with an always available water source (seed hulls floating in it, there might be), but that's not 'natural', so that's bad.

In seconds, all of these birds soar a distance longer than the space available to them in captivity, yet you don't hear this tedious criticism made against 'wild' animals in captivity often when these birds are involved. We know so little about animal 'intelligence', it is shocking to see the HSUS basically imply they are 'uncomplex', but it all stems from the irrational cognition biases of the obviously complex human species.

You Should Only Keep Domesticated Animals Because They Can’t Survive in the Wild!

Translation: It’s Cruel to Keep Pets without Debilitating Deformities

One of the most infuriating criticisms regarding my ownership of natural state animals is this notion that I am somehow being cruel because my pets are healthy and physically fit.

What?

OK, no one uses those exact words, but when it boils down to it, this is essentially being claimed to those who can’t think beyond the domestication myth dogma. You’ve probably heard this many times if you participate in the exotic pet debate; because exotic pets can allegedly survive in the wild and domesticated animals cannot, it is cruel to force exotic animals to be pets and OK for ‘domesticated’ pets.

This idea is so unfathomably stupid because, without even getting into the ethical crux of selectively breeding animals to not be able to survive in the ‘wild’ and what that entails, it is just completely untrue.

So many domesticated animals not only survive, but flourish in the wild, by evolutionary fitness standards

Domesticated and Unbreakable!

anyway.

 It might not be a paradise out there for feral cats, but they produce numerous viable offspring, and that’s all it takes for a species to do well; it doesn’t matter if most will succumb to an untimely death at 3 years old, nature doesn’t promote animal well-being, just survival.

There are also feral populations of swine, rock doves, horses, dogs, and minks. So, this idea of domesticated animals being unable to persevere in the wild is pure hooey.

Also, just because an animal is natural state doesn’t mean that it can survive outside either. When most exotic pets are human-imprinted, or hand-raised, they do not have the skills to survive in the wild. Setting them free would be akin to tossing a human couch potato into the jungles of Borneo. Most freed or escaped exotic pets die, even if the climate is to their liking. 

If anything, domesticated pets are better survivors because humans tend to pick adaptable species as the best domestication candidates. This is why the domestic cat has spread like a cancer throughout North America and isolated islands, also breeding and hybridizing with their progenitors to cause that undomesticated species to become threatened in some regions.

Your abandoned exotic pet

Now, what’s this idea about it only being ethical to own animals that can’t survive without us? As I’ve just explained, many domesticated animals can adapt to life in the ‘wild’, depending on the ‘wild’, but those that do must possess adequate physical health and the ability to find food to do so. 

Exotic pets are typically at an advantage over some domesticated animals, because a lot (but not all) of domesticated animals have been selectively bred to the point of physical and mental debilitation. 

The most obvious example is the bulldog, making the top 10 list of America’s favorite breeds annually, it cannot even mate without human assistance. It is riddled with health problems and horrendous jaw structure.

 But that’s OK because it’s supposed to be that way, the same anti-logic exercised when I’m told my exotic pets are ‘supposed’ to be in the wild because, y’know, that's what I was raised to accept seeing.

So we know that bulldogs, pugs, and numerous other popular dog breeds would never make it on their own so it’s fine and dandy for us to own them. They are ‘domesticated’ in a way that debilitates them, so they need us. My spotted genet can breathe through his nose and run like the wind, so he ‘belongs’ in the wild where he can enjoy evading  predators until his premature death.  

This way of thinking comforts people. A place for everything and everything in its place. No brains required, just accept it.

What’s often overlooked is that WE are responsible for how these dogs and other animals turn out so their fate is in our hands. I’ve decided that it is far more ethical for me to own my exotics than to intentionally incapacitate Canis familiaris or any other species. That’s how I see things. I detest many forms of dog breeding but have no plans on trying to enforce laws that will cause people to lose their ability to own the pets of their choice. 

Why can’t people afford me the same consideration?                  

Here’s How Animal Rights ‘Sanctuaries’ Manipulate the Public with Claims of Their Better, Bigger Environments

You might have heard The Performing Animal Welfare Society, founded by Ed Stewart and Pat Derby, brag about their 2300 acre sanctuary (Ark 2000) for elephants in which the pachyderms have access to 100 acres of land and a Jacuzzi, or The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado and their 700+ acres for various large carnivores.

And you’ve probably definitely come across the rhetoric of Big Cat Rescue of Tampa Florida, whose founders have the biggest mouths but the smaller cage spacing of the three, and their statements about the terrible conditions of which felines in the exotic pet trade are subjected to and the superiority of their facility. 

One of the most blatant examples is their campaign to force the owner of the Tiger Truck Stop in Louisiana to give up his elderly cat and send it to their sanctuary where he will be given a “beautiful lakeside enclosure with a hillside cave, pool…”. 

Unlike some of Big Cat Rescue’s highlights of ridiculously atrocious facilities, Tony the tiger does not live in deplorable conditions; he has, like millions of dogs and cats, a non-‘perfect’ reasonable owner who cares for him and deserves to continue to. Tony’s setting meets his needs even though it is located at a truck stop—such criticism is likely stemming from privileged activists who get to play animal psychic by knowing with certainty that the presence of vehicles is traumatic for the tiger.

Animal rights sanctuaries like those listed above accumulate massive support by perpetuating the domestication myth, then their founders, most who were rich to begin with, collect giant donations from their sympathizers so they can create extravagantly luxurious facilities. 

They show their followers how well their animals are living compared to the comparably poor animal owners with no donators. 

They suggest that they deserve to take possession of people’s animals because they have this luxury, and that enormous amount of space. 

Because so-called exotic animals are viewed as ‘too special to be pets’ no one bats an eyebrow. What if this manipulative tactic was done to them?

What if the owner of a farm with acres of land claimed that your apartment dog is living a cruel existence? These sanctuaries are essentially claiming the following:

 This is your hamster cage. This cage is not luxurious, but it is adequate. It has what your pet needs.

Your enclosure

Look at our superior luxurious cage! Hamsters run 5 miles a night in the wild, our gigantic cage more closely resembles the space they would have if it wasn’t for your evil decision to confine them. Send your hamster to us. Let us give it a chance at a decent life.

 

The sanctuary

Most people wouldn’t stand for this belittling approach. Not all animals, domesticated or otherwise, are kept in the most sparkling and extravagant-mansion equivalent of caging, yet I’d bet my bottom dollar that many are ‘happy’ or at least content if they live in a reasonable environment. 

What’s worse, many would suffer if dropped into a strange environment that the human is bent on believing the animal must love, while it actually probably wants to stay in the comfort of the space it is used to. 

Sanctuaries certainly have their place, but they overstep their bounds when attempting to abduct animals that already have caring owners for the sake of their egos.