圈養鳥的動物福祉科學評鑑與倫理議題

Abstract

對於寵物鳥的人工圈養議題一直以來都具有許多正反兩端爭論，負面的從影響鳥類健康到正面的作為人類伴侶動物等，本篇主要在調查及討論作為是否支持和反對鳥類飼養理由的道德倫理及科學論據。 我們藉由兩個案例研究來討論有關圈養鳥的心理及生理健康議題，第一篇主要利用動物的基礎數據來探討圈養鳥類的飛行必要性及限制飛行的動物福祉評估：十隻野生的泰國八哥great mynahs (Acridotheres grandis) 被選為本次病理、生理及行為研究的討論樣本，我們發現雖然截翅並不會造成神經瘤的形成，但會顯著的減少胸肌的強度，並且在飛行受限空間的個體無論是否提供食物誘因，均偏好較大或垂直高度較高的空間。第二篇研究是降低一對葵花鳳頭鸚鵡sulphur-crested cockatoos (Cacatua galerita) 的拔羽行為，並尋找此行為問題的肇因，治療方式包含藥物治療、社會化、訓練以及餵食豐富化。 兩項研究的結果均為顯著的，因此我們可以得到一個結論，由於缺乏刺激，將會導致圈養的鳥類產生行為問題，因此鳥類作為寵物飼養具有道德上的不正確性，除非投注更多努力在寵物鳥的福祉提升，例如精心設計的圍欄，否則寵物鳥仍處在有限的飛行空間和籠子垂直高度不夠等較差的動物福祉狀況。

There are many arguments both for and against keeping pet birds. From the negative effects that captivity has on the health of the captive bird to the positive effects that companion animals such as birds have towards humans. This paper is intended to discuss and investigate both the ethical and scientific arguments used as justification both for and against the keeping of birds as pets. We focus on discussing the issues relating directly to the physical and psychological well-being by two case studies, first study aims to investigate the essentialness of flight and welfare assessment of flight restraint in captive birds, using animal-based measurement. Ten wild-caught great mynahs (Acridotheres grandis) were chosen as subject and evaluated in pathology, ethology and physiology studies. We found that though wing amputation did not result in neuroma formation, strength of pectoralis muscle diminished significantly in birds with flight restraint. And the birds indicated higher preference for spaces that were bigger or with higher vertical space with or without food provided. The second study was to reduce feather-plucking behaviour in a pair of sulphur-crested cockatoos (Cacatua galerita) and to find the underlying cause of the behaviour. The study was carried out via the application of a number of treatments including medicine (Haloperidol), socialisation, training and feeding enrichment. These results of both studies are significant and can be concluded that it is not ethically right to keep birds as pets due to lack of stimulation in capativity and result in behavioural problems. Meanwhile, pet birds considered in poor welfare as limited flying space and the vertical altitude of the cage unless more efforts are taken such as carefully designed enclosures to meet better animal welfare.