THE NCA AND CC make a crucial distinction in their official response to the DEFRA consultation on compulsory bird registers (left). “We accept,” they say, “the case for registration of owners of poultry and at greater risk of “contamination” from contact with wild birds than are cage and aviary birds. As I found during my initial conversations within the wider avicultural hobby, senior figures in the national societies that represent keepers of waterfowl and gamebirds are minded to see the positives of a registration scheme. That is their prerogative, but it doesn't alter the case for birds that are kept predominantly inside birdrooms. In this context, such birds should be classified alongside those indoor pets that don't need to be registered. Make sure you say so. ■ Reader Stuart from Scotland (letter, left) also makes an excellent point: looking after quail (for example) is, he says, a superb way to foster responsibility and enhance mental health in young people. I'd go further: allowing youngsters to take responsibility for nesting birds in birdrooms – from nest-building, through laying, hatching and weaning – is hugely more beneficial still. Respect for life: what more important lesson is there?
