Aviary set to shut should be lauded not sacrificed, says vet
BBCA vet says an aviary set to shut after a council cut its support and described it as "inhumane" should be "lauded not sacrificed".
The Botanic Gardens in Churchtown, Southport, will shut in March after Sefton Council said it would no longer supply about £60,000 in annual running costs.
Council leader Marion Atkinson has previously said the facility was "no longer in the best interests of the animals" and animal welfare experts backed the move. However, on Friday it was confirmed the authority had asked for the experts' support after the closure decision had already been made.
Peter W Scott, who was also a Defra zoo inspector, said: "The lives of the birds will not be improved by being moved."
The aviary is home to about 170 birds and has been running for almost 90 years.
Scott said: "I appreciate the council wishes that they hadn't been taken from the wild. In reality they are already here and, in all likelihood, captively bred here.
"The Southport Botanic Gardens is providing a good service for the community in rescuing these birds and animals, providing a free resource for visitors, providing the birds with space and human interaction to enrich their welfare."
He added the aviary "should be protected and lauded, not sacrificed to political whim or even worse unreasoning dogma".
The BBC has contacted Sefton Council to respond to Scott's comments.
Ann Cobham, a Botanic Gardens volunteer, said if it closed it would be "devastating to not just me but to the whole community".
She said: "I would say to Sefton Council the most humane act you could do for these birds is to leave them in their home where they are safe, happy and well fed and looked after by vets."
Atkinson has previously said the decision to close the aviary was not about money but taken because such enclosures were "unnatural" and "inhumane".
She told a public meeting in July that nobody was "calling into question the care and kindness shown by staff and volunteers to these birds over the decades, but the fact remains this facility is simply no longer in the best interests of the animals who are kept there".
Animal rights charity Peta and international wildlife charity Born Free is backing the closure as does vet Dr Emma Milne.
Peta's Dr Carys Bennett told BBC Radio Merseyside they were contacted by the council about a fortnight ago "but we do support their efforts to close the aviary".
"It is the end of an era and it is time to stop exhibiting animals for entertainment."
Milne said keeping birds in aviaries was "fundamentally wrong".
"Caging birds and restricting flight and social needs can't be justified unless for clinical need," she said.
Meanwhile, Southport MP Patrick Hurley who is backing the campaign to save the aviary has urged people passionate about the issue not to become abusive online.
He told BBC North West Tonight: "It's really unacceptable in this day and age to be having councillors and politicians and people who are just doing their best for the borough to be subject to that abuse online."
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