OK, here's the start of a point-by-point refutation of the NAIA document. It is not intended as a "draft;" it's mostly a brain dump - possibly a template for discussion and rewriting. Some sections are pasted in pretty much unmodified from the "False and True" document; others from elsewhere. Sections need to be pared down; sections need to be fleshed out. I just wanted to start assembling arguments. Other people may be working on this. Don't know how long a document Philip Gerrie wants in its final form, or whether this is just for internal use. Suggestions, rewrites, cannibalizations all welcome. I'll help in whatever way I can.
Jonathan
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NAIA: While detailed records are unavailable, San Francisco Animal Care and Control reports that it receives approximately TWO birds a week. Most are INJURED WILD BIRDS. Detailed information has not been provided regarding whether or not any birds turned in to Animal Care and Control are from San Francisco pet shops. Based on extrapolations from the American Pet Product Manufacturers Association (APPMA), there are an estimated 40,000 bird owning households n San Francisco. 104 birds per year turned in to Animal Care and Control is a very low percentage (.003%) in relationship to the number of birds being cared for and nurtered in San Francisco homes.
US: These shelter figures seriously under-represent the crisis as it is today, never mind what it will be in a decade. It has taken four centuries for the numbers of homeless dogs and cats to reach the levels they have in America today. The explosion of domestic parrot populations (now estimated at some 40–50 million in US homes) has occurred only in the past 20 years, driven by the rise of large-scale, industrial breeders and pet retailers in the 1990s. Even small parrots like cockatiels can live 30 years, larger species 50–100 years, but their human companions often tire of them long before that. As people who purchased birds on impulse confront the difficulties and cost of caring for these complex, demanding, essentially wild animals, many are relinquishing them, sometimes illegally releasing or simply abandoning them. Most of these birds never reach shelters, dying from untreated illnesses and neglect at home or from starvation or predation when released. The problem has worsened during the current housing crisis and recession, as people losing their homes are simply abandoning birds, sometimes entire aviaries, at an alarming rate. And as the American population ages, more people are having to relinquish long-lived birds because they can no longer care for them. Craigslist is filled with ads for unwanted birds. Mickaboo's annual intake numbers have gone from about 35 in 2002 to a projected 500 this year. If that trend continues, the number will reach 5,000 by 2018. Rescue groups and shelters cannot absorb such growth. Mickaboo currently has 375 rescued birds needing homes, and our volunteers' space to house them is at capacity. Recently we have been forced to impose a moratorium on the intake of cockatiels, although we know of many who need our help. The number of birds Mickaboo sees are a tiny fraction of the total in California, to say nothing of the US. All the while, more birds continue to be bred and sold.
NAIA: There has been NO relationship established between the purchase of birds and animals from San Francisco pet stores and the relinquishment of birds and animals to animal control or to re-homing organizations.
US: Unlike dogs and cats who reproduce easily and often uncontrolled both as human pets and as feral animals, most bird species are difficult to breed in captivity and cannot survive when released. Therefore almost all birds who end up homeless, abandoned, relinquished to shelters and to rescue organizations, or simply passed back and forth (parrots on average are re-homed 7 times during the first 10 years of life) must have been purchased, some directly from breeders but a great many from pet stores.
NAIA: Placing a ban on the sale of birds and small animals by pet stores will have little effect on the need of members of the public to re-home birds and animals. People with serious life changes such as divorce, losing a job, losing a home, and experiencing serious illness, will often need to re-home their pets.
US: The fact that so many people today ARE facing changed life circumstances, and that so many are relinquishing or abandoning their pets show why this sales ban is so necessary. While prohibiting pet sales cannot stop people from giving up on animals they purchased 10 years ago or last month, it will keep thousands more animals from entreing the pipeline and becoming homeless or unwanted; and it makes it more likely that rescued and unwanted birds now and in the future will have a second chance for a good, permanent home.
NAIA: Pet stores are an important source of information for the care and keeping of birds and animals. Youngsters living in San Francisco are able to see birds and animals and learn about them when visiting pet stores.
US: Pet stores are uneven in the quality of information they provide, to say the least. By law, pet stores are only required to provide a 1-page care sheet to send home with the animal. Sometimes these sheets are not even provided; sometimes they contain outdated or erroneous information. The small animals in pet stores, many of them juveniles, are adorable, seductively cute. But children do not see in that artificial context the demands those animals will make as adults. Pet stores or their employees often promulgate a false understanding of birds, mice, and other small animals as easy-to-care-for, good "starter" pets, which (since it is untrue) creates many unhappy owners and many even more unhappy animals. Nor, of course, can children see the horrendous conditions in which many of these animals were bred. Beneath everything else, when pets are bought and sold, there is an inevitable incentive for sellers to try and maximize sales while minimizing costs. This is both directly harmful to the animals being bred and sold and indirectly harmful in making people view these highly intelligent creatures as "disposable" and "replaceable" commodities.
NAIA: San Francisco's smaller pet shops are long time family-run businesses with loyal customers and years of service to the pet owning public, as well as contributing significantly to the economy in San Francisco.
US: We don't want to ruin businesses, especially small, independent ones; we just want them to stop selling commercially bred birds. There are other business models pet stores can follow that don't involve selling bred animals. In the Bay Area we have both chains (Pet Food Express) and independent stores (Sunset Pet Supply, San Francisco; For Other Living Things, Sunnyvale) that provide goods and services for companion animals, as well as pet stores (Andy's, San Jose) that sell only re-homed animals). There are some 20 pet stores in San Francisco that do not sell animals. We regret the effect banning bird sales might have on the income of some stores and their employees, many of whom genuinely love animals. However, the issue cannot be reduced simply to the economic interests of these stores, nor to their economic contribution to San Francisco's economy. So long as pet stores promote birds as easy-care or "starter" pets, they will create unrealistic expectations, frustrated owners and countless miserable, unwanted birds. Moreover, even the most responsible pet sellers — stores that treat their birds well and provide good information and guidance to prospective buyers — are supplied by and support large breeding operations that rival puppy mills in lifelong cruelty toward their captive breeding animals. Such extreme mistreatment of highly intelligent, emotionally sensitive creatures cannot be justified, tolerated, or supported, even indirectly.
NAIA: Studies have linked family ownership of a pet with high self-esteem and greater cognitive development in young children. Additionally, children with pets at home score significantly higher on empathy and pro-social scales than non-pet owners.
US: Living closely with companion animals is a wonderful, humane and character-building experience we don't wish to deny anyone. We want to make sure it is a positive experience that teaches good values and real understanding of the animals involved and of course that it is a good experience for those animals. [This section needs fleshing out.]