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Prevent bird theft and register your birds well

Prevent bird theft and register your birds well

Date: February 7, 2017

Unfortunately bird theft has become pretty common. The chance to find your birds back is very small. This is very sad, because most owners like their birds a lot and know exactly which care their birds need. Luckily there are some things you can do to prevent theft. We spoke with Wil van Zon, bird breeder and initiator of “Meldpunt Vogeldiefstal”, a Dutch hotline to report bird theft.

Why fight against bird theft?

In the past, Wil van Zon loved to breed Australian and Afrikan finches. “I run a Facebook group for keepers of aviary birds. After hearing about another report of bird theft, I was sick of it. With a group of enthusiastic members we started the hotline against bird theft.” The group finds it necessary to inform breeders more about bird theft.

What can you do to discourage bird thieves?

Wil van Zon gives the following tips to prevent bird theft:

  • Check if a bird isn’t stolen. Check the ring number and see if there was no meddling with the legband
  • Keep up a good registration of your birds
  • Discourage thieves with locks on your aviary and indoor cages, cameras, electric fence around the garden or other measures.

The following tips will also help to prevent bird theft:

  • Associations: do not mention addresses of breeders in catalogues
  • Do you sell birds? Always be careful when you’ll meet people you don’t know
  • Are your birds stolen? Always report this to the police

What to do when your birds are stolen?

Wil van Zon: “Always report bird theft to the police. If your country has a hotline for birth theft, report it there as well. At our hotline we put the ring number and the description of the bird online in order to warn other bird breeders as fast as possible. We share this information on Facebook and on our website. Do you suspect someone to offer you stolen birds? Then you must also inform your local police and check if the ring number is known to associations in your country.”

Why bird registration is so important

Here at ZooEasy we want bird breeders to enjoy their feathered friends as long as possible. We support the advice of Wil van Zon to register your birds well. Register the ring number, add pictures, describe special characteristics and more. We hope your birds will never get stolen. But if it ever happens, you can use your information from your database to provide a very accurate description of your stolen or missing birds. We hope this will enlarge the chance that stolen birds will get back to their rightful owner.