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Action Needed! Stop This Cruel ‘Parrot Experience’ in Blackpool

A planning application has been submitted to create a new “parrot experience” attraction in Blackpool, where visitors could interact with captive birds in an artificial indoor environment. Tell the council you object to this cruel plan!

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Parrots Are Not Props

Parrots are not here for human entertainment. They are highly intelligent, sensitive animals who do not belong in cruel tourist attractions.

In their natural habitat, parrots live in complex social groups, fly long distances every day, and spend their time foraging, exploring, and communicating with their flock. Confining them indoors – in a setting built for human amusement – deprives them of the ability to live anything resembling a natural life, and express their natural behaviours.

Stress and Frustration

Parrots bred in captivity retain the same natural instincts as those born in their natural habitat. They require space, stimulation, and meaningful social interaction with others of their own species – not constant exposure to loud humans and forced interactions with them. 

In captivity parrots experience social isolation and a lack of opportunities to express natural behaviours. This can lead to long-term stress and frustration which can manifest as aggression and self-harm. 

Animal Attractions Are Unacceptable

Forcing animals into unnatural conditions, purely with the intention of making a profit off them, is unacceptable. Animals are someone, not something. They are not objects for selfie opportunities. 

Impact on the Community

The planning documents suggest that the attraction would use “lesser vocal” species, such as macaws, to reduce noise. However, macaws and other parrots are naturally loud birds. Their vocalisations are an essential part of their communication. Even species described as less vocal can produce frequent, high volume calls that are likely to be audible beyond the site.
 

Take Action

This proposal would send the message that it’s acceptable to confine animals for novelty encounters and profit. It would also convey to children that animals are here for us to exploit, rather than protect in their natural habitat. We desperately need to move away from cruel animal attractions, and this establishment would be a huge step backwards. 

Please act now and urge Blackpool Council to reject this application.

Please use your full name and email. Invalid entries will be removed from the petition. Please note that the council may publish your name along with comments related to this application.
 

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To Blackpool Council,

Re: Planning Application 26/0242

I am writing to object to the planning application for the proposed “parrot experience” attraction in Blackpool.

I urge the council to refuse this application for the following reasons:

• Noise and disturbance: The application suggests that “lesser vocal” birds, such as macaws, would be used to limit noise. However, parrots – including macaws – are naturally loud animals whose calls are an essential part of their communication behaviour. Their vocalisations can be frequent and high volume, which may lead to persistent noise that would  impact the wider community. While the application states that soundproofing will be carried out, sound is unlikely to be eliminated. This means there is still a chance that the noise could affect residents in flats above the establishment and surrounding. 

• Suitability of the environment: Parrots are highly intelligent, active, and social wild animals who require a lot of space to fly, opportunities to perform complex behaviours, and appropriate social groupings. An indoor, artificial setting designed for public interaction cannot meet their needs.

• Animal welfare concerns: Research has identified serious welfare issues for parrots in captivity, including social isolation, restricted environments, and an inability to express natural behaviours. These conditions can lead to stress, frustration, aggression and abnormal behaviours like feather-plucking, pacing and bar biting. Parrots kept in captivity retain the same needs and instincts as their wild counterparts.

• Ethical and planning considerations: Attractions that rely on close interaction with captive wild animals raise broader ethical concerns and contribute to the commercial exploitation of wildlife for entertainment, as ‘pets’ and for breeding, which in turn contributes to the exploitative international trade in wild animals. They also send the wrong message to children and young people who should be taught that wild animals belong in their natural habitat, not kept in inappropriate enclosures in captivity, for humans to exploit for profit. The council should take these considerations seriously when determining whether this development is appropriate.

For these reasons, I respectfully ask the council to reject this application and prioritise the well-being of animals, the protection of local residents, and the wider public interest.

Yours sincerely,

Act Now

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