The international trade in wild-caught parrots causes enormous welfare harm through capture stress, transport mortality, and inadequate captive conditions.
Wild-caught parrots face compounding welfare harms from the moment of capture. Trapping methods cause acute injury and distress. Holding conditions before export are typically crowded and stressful. Transport imposes further stress, temperature extremes, and disease exposure. Survivors often arrive psychologically damaged — showing extreme fear responses, feather-destructive behavior, and difficulty adapting to captivity. Even captive-bred parrots face significant welfare challenges: their intelligence and social complexity make isolation in small cages deeply harmful. The ethical keeping of parrots requires enormous commitment of time, space, social contact, and enrichment that most buyers are unprepared to provide.