Stop bird markets, in the interest of animal welfare and public health!

The Party for the Animals wants the government to put an end to the hundreds of bird markets in the Netherlands. The Dutch TV programme EenVandaag has shown that these markets are a serious infringement on animal welfare and pose a threat to public health. Party for the Animals MP Frank Wassenberg has called on the government to take firm action against these markets.

In their broadcast on Saturday 7 May, EenVandaag showed that the Netherlands plays a pivotal role not only in legal bird trade, but in illegal bird trade as well. Thousands of exotic birds are sold under the counter to individuals and zoos across the globe. Buyers and sellers are not always strict about the rules. Many of the birds are bred in people’s homes under poor conditions. The animals are often in bad shape due to disease, stress during transport or the poor conditions on bird markets.

Bird trade partly takes place on the black market. On many occasions, there is no proper registration and the supervision of animal welfare and public health during bird markets is often far from adequate. In the EenVandaag broadcast, a veterinarian observed that there are birds with all known contagious avian diseases at bird markets. Attending veterinarians with a supervisory role do not step in or report cases of psittacosis, despite it being their legal duty. Bird markets may therefore pose a threat to public health.

MP Frank Wassenberg (Party for the Animals) has incited the government to put an end to bird markets. Wassenberg: “EenVandaag’s broadcast has shown that both animal welfare and public health are disregarded at bird markets. For the Party for the Animals, there is but one possible conclusion: bird markets are to be banned, in the interest of the animals as well as human safety. And until they are banned, the government should deal with the lack of enforcement at the markets.”