NEWS AND COMMENT- PALU CITY, CENTRAL SULAWESI, INDONESIA: An Indonesian bird catcher/seller has said: “I hate seeing animals trapped and suffering”. He was being praised and lauded by others because he had freed, with the help of others, a tyre from around the neck of a crocodile. The croc had been stuck in the tyre for six years. The bird catcher calls himself Tili. He is 34 years old.
“I hate seeing animals trapped and suffering.” – Tili
Tili claims to be an animal lover who hates seeing animals ‘trapped and suffering’. That’s why he wanted the crocodile to be released from the motorcycle tyre. But after removing the tyre he returned to his work trapping and keeping birds in cages for sale. He is making bird suffer. Can’t he see the hypocrisy in what he has said?
It is obvious that birds are going to suffer stress when put together in small cages. You see this all over Asia. The birds have home ranges of many hectares or perhaps a square mile or more. It depends upon the species.
And if you keep a bird alone in a cage it is entirely unnatural. PETA state that caged birds are either captured or bred in captivity. In the wild they are never alone. If they are separated from flock mates they call out loudly. Birds preen each other and fly together. They often mate for life. They share parenting. Their close companionship is obvious for anybody to see.
Many birds spend their entire lives trapped inside a cage which is far too small and which is placed in the corner of the living room or basement or garage. They crave freedom and companionship. They are cruelly forced to live in solitary confinement for the rest of their very long lives.
PETA says that they are sometimes driven mad by their boredom and loneliness. They become aggressive and self-destructive. They pull out their own feathers and self-mutilate. They bob their heads incessantly and regurgitate. They pace back and forth. They peck over and over again at cage bars. They shake and sometimes collapse from anxiety. It is very hard to remove this behaviour even are that they’ve released.
This is certainly cruel. It is only ignorant people who can’t see this and can’t understand it. Tili did a great job when he helped the croc. He planned the whole process meticulously. But he’s a hypocrite. He is a terrible hypocrite and does not deserve to be praised.
Further, he used chicken as bait and I believe other living birds. After a couple of weeks, the crocodile was attracted to the birds and was caught in a trap laid by the man. He then asked others to help him return the crocodile to the wild after the tyre was released. The tyre was actually sawn off the crocodile because it must have been fixed very firmly.
Tili proudly states that he has experience and skills in ‘catching animals’. Why be so proud about it? Why not be proud about leaving the animals in the wild where they belong and giving them their freedom? I’m sorry but this man is ignorant.
