Buying a pet store parrot in New York City may soon be for the birds – and shop owners have their feathers in a bunch about it.
A bill banning the retail sale of birds in shops across the city is now under consideration in the New York City Council.
The bill introduced by Councilmember Diana Ayala on Monday would amend Local Law 132 of 2024 by adding birds to the list of animals banned from being sold. If passed, it would include popular birds such as parrots, finches, parakeets and others — but does not include poultry birds like chickens. Breeders are exempt from the bill and can still sell birds. Only stores in the city would be barred from displaying, auctioning, transferring or selling birds.
The rule would become the first piece of legislation banning the sale of birds as pets in the state of New York. Allie Taylor, president of Voters for Animal Rights, has been working on securing the ban with Ayala.
“These are birds that in the wild, they fly hundreds of miles every day,” said Taylor. “They’re crossing rainforests, savannahs, tropical mountainscapes that are rich in diversity. They are not meant to be sitting in your living room in a cage in Chelsea.”
This legislation comes on the heels of a ban on the sale of Guinea pigs in stores from the City Council in 2023. A similar bill that would ban the sale of birds statewide was introduced this year in the state assembly by State Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal is currently in committee.
The birds found for sale in pet stores all around the city mainly come from out of state bird mills, which is like a puppy mill but for birds, and curbing the sale of exotic birds would halt the financial support of these facilities according to Liz Cabrera-Holtz, senior campaigns manager at the World Animal Protection, an animal rights organization.
“Birds suffer right from their birth at the mill to when they get transported from the mill to life in the store and then to a person’s home,” said Cabrera-Holtz. “Any bird sale drives the wildlife trade and increases demand for it.”
Animal rights advocates such as Taylor and Cabrera-Holtz argue birds shouldn’t be domesticated and confined in a cage but rather should be free to roam the air as they please out in nature.
Birds also have special needs that make them more complicated to care for than dogs and cats, advocates said. Some birds live for several decades, and can become challenging for senior owners in particular.
‘It’s Only Gonna Be Fish’
For pet stores, this ban becomes yet another change to navigate in a run of recent pet-related bans in the past decade. For Lisa Santiago, the manager of a pet store in The Bronx called Whole Pets Market, the bill passing wouldn’t be a death knell for the business, but would be an inconvenience and slow down operations.
“Of course it’s going to affect us because we do sell birds. If we can’t sell the birds, we still sell the feed,” said Santiago. “But not being able to sell the animal, that kind of slows things down for the sale of the supplies.”
Santiago grew up surrounded by all different kinds of animals as pets — from frogs to snakes to turtles and more. She gave her daughter a similar upbringing, which heavily influenced her to become a veterinarian. The responsibility of owning and taking care of an animal was crucial to both her own and her daughter’s development and is something Santiago says will be taken away from children if the ban passes in the Council.
“Before it was the rabbits. Then it was the Guinea pigs. And now it’s going to be the birds,” said Santiago. “These kids are never going to experience the joy of having a pet or learning responsibilities. It’s kind of sad that it is being considered.”
Queron Romain, a bird breeder who also works at a Wonder Pets Corp. store in Brooklyn as a sales associate, was adamant this bill would hurt both pet stores and consumers.
“What’s gonna happen to the average old Joe Shmo when he’s eagerly looking for a bird? They’re gonna end up spending $100, $150 for a parakeet versus the $50 that they’re spending right now, which doesn’t make sense,” said Romain, referring to prospective bird owners who will have to search outside the city, or go to expensive breeders.
“You’re only making pet stores work harder to stay open,” said Romain. “If you take out the birds, it’s only gonna be fish. Literally, there’s nothing else to buy.”
Animal advocates like Taylor argue birds will still be available to adopt at an animal shelter or rescue center, just no longer for sale. Unlike dogs and cats who are typically surrendered to shelters in the city, birds tend to be released into the wild or die at home at the hands of unprepared owners, according to Taylor.
“We’re taking out the financial incentive of treating these birds like products,” said Taylor.
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