BirdsFirst is campaigning to have all illegal selling of pet birds stopped. Every week, throughout the country, dozens of illegal sales and auctions of birds take place.At these sales, birds are often housed in cruel conditions. Wild-caught exotic species are often offered for sale. Typically these birds will have been recently captured from tropical countries (legally or illegally) and are offered as pet birds. Species include African and Timneh grey parrots, Amazon parrots, macaws, cockatoos, finches, toucans and mynah birds. Death rates to these highly stressed birds are very high. Most wild-caught birds die before getting to Britain. But those that make it alive are put through further suffering as they are transported around the country from one illegal sale to another.

Greg Glendell, Director of BirdsFirst said:

"These sales are totally illegal.It is a criminal offence to run a business selling pet birds without a pet shop licence.Ordinary pet shops and garden centres hold pet shop licenses issued by the local authority. Pet shops are not perfect but conditions there can be regulated by vets and Environmental Health Officers to minimise the spread of diseases and enforce basic welfare standards for the birds.With the sale days, where vendors just hire a hall or agricultural building this is not the case.Traders openly flout the law displaying birds in vile conditions.People think they can get an exotic bird at a bargain price at these places, but most people don't even get a receipt for their bird.When it becomes ill or dies, they have no comeback. The trader has long gone, the buyers, having spent £400 to £1000 or more on a bird, can end up with a corpse and cannot get their money back.

"We've seen birds bleeding from injured wings and legs; birds unable to stand in their cages, gross overcrowding and countless numbers of parrots who scream in sheer terror if anyone approaches them.These are the wild-caught birds. Some birds may have access to food only where this is thrown onto the cage floor and mixed with their own excrement.This shows the total lack of care the traders have for the birds they sell. Uninformed buyers learn the hard way when their 'bargain bird' ends up a corpse within a few days.We hear reports of stolen birds being offloaded and of all sorts of tax fiddles going on as well. With 'white van man' operating as an itinerant bird trader this sort of thing is to be expected.But our main concern is for the birds.Conditions at some of these sale days are medieval.It's nonsense to think of Britain being a nation of animal lovers when you see how so many birds are treated."

Some local authorities have mistakely issued pet shop licenses to bird traders for one-day sales but one-day licenses are illegal.Now that the Chartered Institute for Environmental Health has issued its guidelines on how to enforce the legislation, these sales should cease.The RSPCA also opposes these illegal sales.However, many traders try to get around the law.