Help Save the Songbirds of Vietnam

If you love something, you have to let it go. That is a lesson that the people in Vietnam might have to learn quickly before it's too late. Like many Asian countries, an appreciation for songbirds and their beautiful plumage has sparked a booming captive songbird industry. It's not uncommon to see a caged bird hanging outside someone's house, or hear of songbird competitions where owners enter their prized birds to compete against other hopefuls.

But those birds have to come from somewhere, and usually it's the wild. According to conservationists, the wild caught songbird trade is now threatening the survival of several species of beautiful birds in the Southeast Asian country. And if the government doesn't get a hold of the uncontrolled trapping and selling of these beautiful birds, the songbirds could go silent.

According to research, thousands of birds are held captive on a daily basis waiting to be sold. Many of them are from species whose populations could quickly decline. For example, the red-breasted parakeet - previously considered a species of least concern by conservationist has now been bumped up to near threatened. The high demand for the parakeet has prompted an alarming crash in their wild populations.

Other species are even more imperiled like the Java sparrow and sun conure.

Animal lovers both within and without Vietnam must demand that the Vietnamese government take steps to ensure that these beautiful birds will be able to live on in the wild for centuries to come. And, in order to do that they must begin to put strict controls on the bird songbird trade.

Help Vietnam avoid a the very real possibility of a silent Spring. Ask them to regulate the wild bird trade before it's too late.