Tripe said he did not understand the concept of captive animals.
“Birds have got wings to fly and they are not able to do that in the aviary,” he said.
“It doesn’t seem right to me, that‘s my sense, to have birds in aviaries in this day and age.”
An independent report last year from zoologist Dr Lorne Roberts found the facility was not meeting best-practice standards for animal health and welfare.
During the council’s annual plan process last year, officers recommended shutting the facility but that was over-ruled by councillors.
Public consultation on the annual plan resulted in 410 of 448 responses indicating support for keeping the aviary open.
The numbers were closer for the LTP consultation, with 630 in favour of closure and 612 wanting it to stay open.
A further 128 said they wanted something else.
A previous motion from Law failed by seven votes to six, with councillors voting along the same lines as they had for the officer’s recommendation.
Law proposed that the council seek a community group to own and operate the facility, sell it for $1, approve a 10-year ground lease for a peppercorn rental, provide $30,000 a year to support the group and close the aviary if no suitable group was identified.
He said it was a Victorian-style aviary for a heritage city and it suited what Whanganui was.
“I believe it will eventually close down but, as I’ve said to multiple people, if you take something away from someone with no warning, they will be upset.
“If people know that within 10 years it will be gone, they will be much more accepting of that.”
Melser said she would rather see council funding go towards native birds and education programmes at Bushy Park, rather than “a tired aviary with non-native birds that are trapped”.
Duncan said the birds would be rehomed “to another cage”.
“If we kept [the aviary], we could have wound it down carefully, bird by bird,” she said.
“We could have looked after those birds. Now we have no control, once those birds leave that aviary, as to what will happen to them.”
Anderson asked if council officers had any ideas on how the birds would be rehomed.
Council chief executive David Langford said moves had already been made to reduce bird numbers - “making sure they are rehomed to suitable places where they are going to be well cared for”.
Last year, bird numbers were reduced from 178 to 98 in response to the zoologist’s report.
“We’ll just continue that process as quickly as we can,” he said.
Fallen said there was an almost 50-50 split in public opinion and it was no different in council chambers.
“We are part of this community and we have given some very personal views.
“I’m sure our officers will be looking with compassion as to what the facilities might be for those birds and their rehoming.”
Council property and open spaces general manager Sarah O’Hagan told the Chronicle the council would ensure rehomed birds went to environments where they were well looked after.
Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.
