chico chupacabra wrote:
> Karen Winter, bird diddler ordinaire, wrote:
>
> > >>>> You approve of people 'diddling' large animals.
> >
> > >>> I approve of agriculture;
> >
> > >> You approve of
> >
> > "diddling" animals
>
> No, I object to your "regular" diddling of small animals. You weren't
> engaged in agriculture or any pursuit other than jacking off a little
> animal.

Companion birds often grow to identify with their human caregivers.
That's the whole point of hand-rearing young birds and individually
housing them. It's a damn shame the way we purposely distort the
behavior of other creatures for our own benefit, but that's
domstication for you.

Isolated, intact adult birds perceive caretakers as their mates and
exhibit typical adult behaviors towards them. The birds become
possessive, protective, nurturing and sexual. These are instinctual
needs of adult birds and good caretakers make sure these needs are
safely met.

Birds can die from sexual-related stress. Permanently caged adults
will rub themselves on perches or water containers causing feather loss
and hard to heal sikn abrasions. Others will over-groom until they are
featherless. Birds lucky enough to be regularly handled by their
people and not treated as mere sunroom ornaments will rub on the
hands, arms or head of their human "mates". It's as normal as the
behavior of these poor creatures gets. Karen's fortunate she's the
love object of a cockatiel and not a macaw. That can get pretty
intense.

What should she do with the sexually aroused cockatiel? Fling it
against the wall? Shake it hard? Throw it back in its lonely cage?
Do you have any comapssion at all for the animals we have appropriated?

Like so many who oppose giving other cretures the respect and care they
deserve, you suffer from one-dimensional, profit motivated experience
of animals. In other words, you were too long down on the farm, dude.

Elsewhere you stated that cattle have all the protection they need
under state animal welfare laws. Please refer to Texas law Title 9.
Sec. 42.09 (h) (2) which exempts animal husbandry and farming practices
from state anti-cruelty statutes. So, by your reasoning, no protection
is all the protection livestock need.