When cruelty is mistaken as cuteness and affection

People find weird things cute. They enjoy watching animals perform tricks and keep flight-gifted creatures as pets in tiny cages. When it comes to gifting and pets though, there are some things a sensible human can do:

1. Animal tricks: Unless the animal actually enjoys it (dog taught to fetch a ball), don't make animals do tricks.
2. Birds as pets: No matter how well you take care of your birds, I feel it is a sadist behavior. A pair of budgies were gifted to a person I know, and she wanted to breed them. So the birds gave rise to five more baby budgies, and she's really happy. But I've observed the behavior of these budgies for many months now. Although they are reasonably affectionate to humans, their natural behavior tends to finding the highest perch available and to fly away from human contact as much as possible. They are independent, intelligent, curious creatures that are denied their freedom because somebody thinks it's cute to own them or because somebody thinks they are being protected from the rest of the world.

Here are some things you need to know:

• The bait: Pet shop owners sell budgies at Rs.150 per bird. One thinks that's reasonable until one realizes that for the duration of the bird's life, one has to buy it seeds. So each bird sold, gives them a permanent customer. Now that they know they got you hooked, they charge exorbitant prices for the seeds. In Bangalore, bird seeds that are meant for budgies and finches, are purchased by shop owners for Rs.26 per kg and sold at Rs.50 or even at Rs.100 per kg. Some people sell it at Rs.220 or Rs.300 per kg on online shopping sites. Also sold, are vitamins etc. which the birds don't really need if you simply feed them with proper diet. Feeling cheated already?
• The possible scam: The pet industry in USA is worth $66 BILLION. I've known shop owners India who deliberately or unknowingly keep pet birds and fish which have parasites, so that customers who buy it would come back to buy more when the pet dies. Would the increase in pet cancer be from something deliberately introduced into pet food? Just speculating.
• Don't set them free: Animals and birds raised in captivity do not know where to find food and how to defend themselves. They also do not have the stamina to escape predators. They don't even know how to escape predators when pursued (I've seen it happen). If you already have a pet, keep it with you and care for it. Don't let it breed and create more of its kind that will have to live a captive life too. If you have birds, give them a larger space to fly around. Don't think you are giving them sufficient opportunity to fly if you have an aviary or allow them to fly in your room. A bird enjoys flying only when it's able to flap its wings and then glide at high speed for a long distance. Breeding a bird and keeping it caged denies it of its fundamental right to fly free. There are aviaries like Shuka vana where injured or uncared birds can be taken care of.

Having a pet was an old tradition. Of a time when cruelty was considered normal. Crazy behaviour was considered a normal part of a ritualistic, egoistic society. Of a time when people were a lot less civilized and immature. A time when even humans were displayed in a zoo.

We do not have to continue those practices. Please....stop buying pets. Stop breeding them. Stop forcing them to live an unhappy, bored life in captivity. If you've rescued them and are taking care of them, it's an entirely different thing. Just don't breed more captives for your pleasure/profit.

Your imagined cuteness is a heartless cruelty.