Wait, what? They’re nailing flying fish to branches?
This I have to see.
I’m wondering how you feel about eating eggs and chicken.
They’re birds too you know, though they can’t fly. The egg layers can’t even walk in their tiny cages and the fryers don’t even see daylight.
I buy off a local hobby farmer with barn yard chickens.
Luckily I have a choice.
Or he misunderstood, which would be my bet.
Not to be too nitpicky, I hope; but parrots are sometimes displayed like this, sort of. As long as their flight feathers are trimmed, and the perch is designed to discourage them from climbing down, they are generally content to sit still and pose.
No idea if SeaWorld uses this sort of display, it’s been years since I’ve been over there. But yes, it is possible to stick birds on a tree out in the open and expect them not to try flying off. Parrots especially are smart enough to trust about this, usually.
I saw something that did move me once at a zoo in Florida. There was a display with a crow – just a plain old crow. It was a fairly large cage – almost as big as the room I’m in now, but one thing happened that made me feel for its captivity.
Another crow was watching it from outside. It was all like “hey buddy i’m gonna get you out!” And crows are intelligent enough that if it were possible it probably would. I’m not sure if it was sad, but it was poignant.
Actually, guess what?
We usually only get our eggs from farms that let their chickens roam around FREE! One of the people we go to literally let them out in wide open space for around 10-12 hours a day!
Our chicken is usually bought from Whole Foods, Apple Gate Farms, so I’m not too sure about that. But it does say all the things like no antibiotics, no preservatives, etc. My parents really care about this stuff so they try to get the best quality they can. Oh and they’re also organic.
No really, I remember the scene well. She really legitimately said that.
No she didn’t, troll.
He said the birds were in tree branches, though.
Aha! Parrots at SeaWorld! Well, at one of their parks, anyway. So they do use this sort of display.
Those birds still have their wings, I promise. It was just a very bad joke.
Yeah that’s what it was like!
Alright, I’ll trust you on this one (not that I wouldn’t in other situations). 
I’m sure they are, the mechanical ones are hell on the cutlery.
So you figure birds don’t understand the concept of life expectancy but they do understand the concept of freedom? As you point out “All they want to do is live!” and most zoo animals live longer, safer, easier, healthier, and better fed lives than wild animals do. If you birds were smart enough to understand the concept, they’d probably be volunteering to go to the zoo.
You’re different now? Just sayin’?
Well I hope so, after I spent like 20 minutes noodling out that huge reply post up there!
Happy to set your mind at ease on this. I think the birds would thank you for caring enough to worry about them.
x 10
I imagine it was meant as “wing feathers” since you could see they still had wings. How old are you?
This x 10. Trying to put animals in the place of humans in any situation doesn’t ever work. If nothing else, animals don’t have much if any sense of the passage of time, and have zero concept of “what might have been”. The lower forms don’t even have real thought processes outside of being scared or not, being hungry or not, etc. So in many cases, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether some animals even know they are confined, and most have no concept of life otherwise so they are happy to live in a (decent) zoo.
Merneith summed it up for me. I do have a problem with pinioning, as it’s irreversible, but not with keeping birds in flocks within in a large flight enclosure which has plenty of things to explore, branches to perch on, and tasty and nutritious food and water available. Most birds seem to view flight the way we do walking very long distances or running: it’s fun to do occasionally, but it’s also quite tiring and is mostly done only when necessary.
Only the Norwegian blues.
Personally, I was thinking Brian Fellow.
Having worked at the SD Zoo when I was in college, I can assure you that the animals, every last one of them, are cared for by loving and compassionate keepers. In fact, in many cases they are bonded with their keepers. I remember seeing a primate keeper sitting beside a lowland gorilla as the gorilla ate fruit while gently holding a single finger of his keeper. The keepers were assigned specific displays so they were able to interact with their animals on a daily basis. They were well attuned the normal behavior and reported any change to that behavior that might indicate a need for professional intervention. I used to sneak into the pen of a orphaned lion cub named Akar, and play with him until he became too big for me to play with (I’m not that brave).
The animals are fed quality food, given top notch veterinary care and otherwise provided with everything they need to thrive. Their areas may be more confined than in the wild, but every effort is taken to make their habitat match their natural habitat.
I think I’ve mentioned before the high quality of the fruits and vegetables they serve the animals. Every time I walked through the kitchen (preparation area) where the fruit and such were stored and prepared, I noticed that the quality of the items rivaled the best supermarkets. 100% top quality.
And I would bet that most, if not all zoos, subscribe to the same professional standards as the SD zoo does.