Tamworth Regional Council’s senior parks and horticultural officer Hugh Leckie says residents have been smuggling unwanted domestic birds into the marsupial park and dumping them in the large bird aviary.

He said they would find at least a dozen birds dumped each year – and the unwanted pets died of shock if not found quickly, due to the dramatic change in habitat.

“If we can catch them quick enough, we can put them in a different aviary,” Mr Leckie said.

“It happens on-and-off and there is often a spate of them, then it drops off, but it happens throughout the year.” 

Mr Leckie said pet owners needed to speak to the council before dumping birds because, apart from the risk of spreading disease to the birds who live in the aviary, the domestic birds often died and it was not a humane way to rehome an unwanted family pet.

“If they talk to us, we may be after that species and, if not, we can guide them,” he said.

“We’ll either take them or direct them to somewhere else.”

Tamworth Regional Council communications and engagement manager Caroline Lumley said there were so many more humane and responsible ways to dispose of unwanted pets, from birds to dogs and cats.

“There is Heaven Can Wait and a number of proactive rehoming agencies that will help people,” she said.

Council staff asked that people research their options before dumping, because they had also had kittens dumped at the pound in a cardboard box and even a dog thrown over the fence.