I was disappointed to see a pet shop in the Hyperdome selling baby chickens, presumably in an attempt to cash in on the traditional links between Easter and hen’s eggs. Baby chickens are very cute. So are baby rabbits. But they don’t stay babies forever.
I wonder how many people who buy a baby chicken plan ahead for the chicken run they will need to erect in their garden to accommodate the adult bird? If the bird turns out to be a rooster, have they pondered how they will manage that situation given regulations around keeping these in urban and suburban settings? Check out www.rspca-act.org.au and you will see a number of rabbits already awaiting new homes – how many of these, I wonder, were impulse buys which were later regretted and have now been farmed off to the RSPCA to deal with?
Ban the sale of live animals in pet shops in Canberra!