Memorandum submitted by Pauline Burgess
I would like to present the following evidence
concerning the annex to the Bill, regarding the licensing of Bird
and Pet markets. I am vehemently opposed to the licensing of these
markets and believe they should be ended altogether.
I have visited several of these itinerant bird
sale at the Three Counties Showground, Malvern. The moment I walked
into the first one I visited I saw a trader put his hand into
a cage full of birds (exotic finch types) and one of the birds
flew out of the cage and away. The trader did not even bother
to look to see where this bird went. I was most concerned, of
course, that this bird might be carrying diseases and would spread
these to our native birds, as the building doors were wide open.
As the traders are taking these birds from market
to market, it is very stressful and cruel for these birds to be
loaded and unloaded (being wheeled across rough surfaces from
lorry to venue, as I have seen at the Malvern Showground sales),
over and over again.
If any birds have diseases that can be transmitted
to other birds or people, again they are going from county to
county spreading them. A lot of these unfortunate creatures are
wild, which of course is exceptionally cruel.
These events should be clamped down on and ended
completely, not licensed.
August 2004
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