Christopher Norton wrote in message ...
The message m
from Hazell B contains these words:

I'm so glad you seem to think it's funny!

Stereotypical behaviour in animals is something everyone complains
about at circus and zoo level, yet in pet shops it seems perfectly
okay.

I'm not some animal rights nut, but I loathe the pet shop trade that is
below standard.
--
Hazell B
I'm thinking of starting a lawn laying business and calling it Sodding
Perfection
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posted via www.GardenBanter.co.uk

Hazel, there are plenty of scum pet shop owners who treat their animals
with such disdain that they should be hung, drawn and quartered. This is
cruelty at it`s very worst because its for profit.

However, its sometimes difficult to see what behaviour changes there are
because the animals are domesticated versions of the wild things. You`d
never get to see a guinea pig let alone pet it in the wild unless it`s
domesticated. Just have to accept whats domesticated behaviour and whats
problematic behaviour. Thats not easy.


The 'abnormal behaviour' refered in the message is in fact behaviour
that indicates animal welfare problems, as opose to behaviour you do
not see in the wild. The most common example is stereotypic behaviour,
like pacing up and down for ages, continuously twisting the neck in
unusula ways, head bobbing, overgrooming untill the animal looses all
its fur/feathers, and this sort of behaviour.

In fact, it is relatively easy to tell this behaviour apart for what
is 'normal', even for a domesticated animal, because it tends to gets
worse overtime untill the animal cannot do anything else.

Jordi