Indonesia's obsession with songbirds might just lead to their extinction. Thousands of beautiful and musical birds are snatched from the wild every year, stuffed into cages and condemned to a life in captivity. And those are the lucky ones. According to some reports nearly 60 percent of the birds die before ever being sold.
Nowhere is their obsession more apparent than in Pramuka Market, the enormous wildlife market in downtown Jakarta that reeks of bird excrement and a chorus of chirps and caws blare throughout the building. Here thousands of birds are stuffed into "tiny bamboo cages stacked three metres high and extending for dozens of metres."
Most of them are used as musical ornaments to hang around the house, others entered into songbird competitions, but none of them will ever see the outside of their cage again.
In 2015, The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed ten Indonesian birds as endangered, in last year 3 of those species were moved up to critically endangered the last distinction before being considered extinct.
Indonesia needs to end the illegal bird trafficking industry and the first step is to close down these notorious bird markets, especially Pramuka Market. Please take the time to sign this petition and let's make sure these songbirds continue to sing.
Dear President Widodo ,
Some of the rarest, most beautiful birds in the world live in the Indonesian archipelago. Due to their feathers, beauty and song they have been hunted to near extinction and now we are left to take drastic measures. As long as poachers have a place to sell them, they will always be in danger. Please shut down these markets and crack down on illegal bird poaching. Let’s make sure these birds sing for years to come.
[Your comments]
Sincerely,
