Birds should not be caged as pets.

1) Wing clipping - 1 - Not all birds have to go through it, particularly smaller birds - 2 - Clipping their wings may improve their safety - 3 - Its the most humane way to keep them safe. Not all birds have to go through wing clipping, finches, a few parakeets, and many small birds can live in very nice cages and not have to have their wings clipped since they are small enough to have ample amounts of fly within their cage. Also consider how each year how many birds die from flying into mirrors, windows, screen doors, fans, etc because they think they have open space but really they dont and they fly head on into the objects and kill themselves. Sometimes birds could escape and fly away which sounds like freedom for a bird, but how is a domesticated bird suppossed to hunt for food, build a nest, or learn how to hide from predators when it has spent its whole life being treated by humans? clipping their wings may keep them in one prison but its far better than being trapped in the real world where birds can be hunted, killed, and eaten every day... Clipping their wings is the easiest way to keep a bird safe in a house hold. You also claim that clipping a birds wings is inhumane but its much better than the alternative to keeping birds from flying............ Cutting off their wings. Which sounds more harmful, a haircut or an amputation? 2) Domestication - Just because they are not domesticated does not mean they could not be tamed There are many many pets out there that are not domesticated but people in some countries can still have them as pets. A good majority of animals in circus's are not domesticated but can learn how to live a domestic suburban lifestyle within their lifetimes and fairly quickly. Elephants, Lions, Bears in tutu's are all examples of how wild animals can be tamed to the point where they can coexist with humans and their predators. Birds are not even very wild to begin with and are not lethal predators humans fear, and birds adjust quickly to be domesticated if they are raised that way from birth since not all animals are caught in the wild then sold as pets. 3) Does not integrate well with humans - Sure they can - Is the issue of this debate that birds should not be pets or should not be caged? Your argument here focuses on how birds can come into conflict with parts of a persons home and belongings, but if the issue is whether or not birds should be caged, then this would be an argument for me. Birds should be caged because if allowed to roam around the house they could destroy furniture or eat something not suppossed to be eaten.... If however this argument is meant to show why birds shouldnt be pets at all, there are many types of dogs, cats, hampsters, etc that will also do these things to a home but they are perfectly normal pets are they not? 4) Bad for emotional health - You can always get two birds - If you let them fly around the house they could run away or get killed by accident Some birds are cheap enough where instead of buying one you can buy two or three (like finches or parakeets) and then the issues caused by isolation from other birds is solved quite simply with adding another bird. And its not too expensive to buy another bird than the one you bought in the first place, finches cost 10-20 dollars each, parakeets are a but higher than thet, and some parrot owners have many parrots to spoil :) 5) Many Pet owners neglect them - This happens to all animals - Neglect to birds have less ramnifications Now neglect towards pets is a sad aspect of society, however neglect towards a bird is much less of an issue compared to some of the sick acts of cruelty comitted against cats or dogs. (anyone who has ever seen an ASPCA commerical knows what I mean here). And the thing about birds is that they are pretty self sufficient for long periods of time. They dont have to go to the bathroom outside, they dont have to be fed multiple times a day, some birds can even go without water for a while. Birds are a pet where if you dump food into a little bowl for it to eat, it wont eat all of it in one hit like dogs or cats, they will consume as much as they want (which isnt always a lot since their birds) and then they will stop, do their bird thing for a while, then come back and eat again by themselves hours later. Birds can be neglected, but it happens on a far smaller and less cruel scale than it does compared to cats and dogs, and if animal cruelty is your argument against why birds shouldnt be pets then dogs and cats shouldnt be used as pets at all.