Call for a ban on breeding and selling parrots

Parrots can live up to 60 years. However, their loudness, curiosity and hyperactivity overwhelm many owners. As a result, surrenders and emergencies are on the rise, and rescue centres have long been working at full capacity. The Austrian Animal Welfare Association is therefore calling for a ban on breeding and selling parrots in order to alleviate the situation in the long term.

Most of the 387 species of parrots live in tropical and subtropical rainforests and, according to Alfred Kofler, head of animal care at Assisi-Hof in Stockerau, are hardly suitable as pets: ‘Keeping parrots requires specialist knowledge, a humid indoor climate, exotic food and constant activity – it is hardly possible to keep them in a species-appropriate manner in a private home.’

In Austria, parrots were readily available for decades due to trade, breeding and import. It was not until the Animal Welfare Act of 2005 that clear regulations were introduced. Today, these exotic birds are out of fashion and their emergency care poses an animal welfare problem. Anyone who keeps parrots takes on a great responsibility that extends over decades.