Auckland City Council Bird and Reptile Ban

As you may have heard, Auckland City Council has passed a bylaw banning the keeping, breeding and selling of a number of parrot and reptile species. This ban comes into effect on 1st September 2022. There has been no consultation with the PSNZ or any other knowledgeable body and by the time we knew about it, it had already been passed and set in the council regulations.

Bird species specifically mentioned are:

Sulphur Crested Cockatoos

Galahs

Indian Ringnecks

Rainbow Lorikeets

Quakers

Eastern Rosellas

The PSNZ is very concerned that this will merely be the tip of the iceberg. If it goes through, more species will be included and more regions will be affected. As it stands, none of these birds will be allowed to travel through the Auckland region so anybody selling or rehoming birds or even moving house will be unable to do so if it involves Greater Auckland or the airport. Taking a sick bird to get veterinary treatment would also be impossible.

It is critically important that we act now to have this ill-considered and unconstitutional ban overturned. The Society has engaged top public law specialist, Mai Chen of Chen Palmer to act on our behalf and this is going to cost a great deal of money. The last estimate we were given was in excess of $60,000 to take this through the court system and we already have bills amounting to more than $30,000.

Currently the Society has been funding this through our reserved funds, Give-a-little, donations from pet owners and hobbyists and business sponsorship. We are hoping for your participation in this fight as we cannot do this on our own.

Any amount you can spare would be gratefully received and you can donate through the Give-a-little page 

Or preferably by depositing your donation into our dedicated PSNZ account:

Account Number: 02-0152-0528170-025   Reference: Pet Ban Donation

We really need your support to preserve aviculture and pet bird keeping in NZ both now and for future generations. Thank you in advance for your help and please do feel free to pass this on to anyone that you may feel would also be keen to offer assistance. We need all the help we can get!