Sunday, November 30, 2008

The gift of freedom

Every so often I pass by a shop that sells birds as pets. These birds, colorful and lovely, cheerful and noisy, are caged. People are supposed to buy these, and keep them at their homes, as pets. What a pity! A natural idea is to buy these birds and to free them.

This can be combined with near ones' birthdays. A gift of freedom to those who need it on someone else's birthday seems to be a perfect gift. So, by this proposition, if there are 4 members in a household, buy a pair of these on the birthdays of each of the 4 members, and free them (when you get home).

I thought about this for a while. Then, it struck me that there is another possible hurdle to this: what if the guys who capture / sell them have injured the birds' wings so that they aren't able to fly away even if the cage door is open? In that case, I would be stuck with having bought those birds, and not being able to free them. This is a very real possibility. One can see this kind of cruelty everywhere. An example: pass by any fish market, and you'll see crabs maimed just enough so that they do not run away, but just alive to be killed fresh when a customer buys them.

I still plan to ask some of those guys, and maybe someday I'll take a risk and buy those birds anyways...to "free" them.

1 comment:

Aseem Rane said...

A very noble idea indeed.
However setting them free in Mumbai might not be a good idea. we need to free them near their natural habitat where they can survive on their own.

Also if many people follow this idea, the "demand" for the birds will increase and more birds will be captured to satisfy the increase in demand defying the purpose.