Parakeets’ Heads Ripped Off at Breeding Factory Tied to PetSmart, Petco, and Others

In a metal barn off a rural Oklahoma highway, a bird-breeding factory keeps a staggering 10,000 parakeets crammed 24/7 in tiny cages, stacked from floor to ceiling so that their offspring can eventually be sold like merchandise at pet stores such as PetSmart, Petco, and Petland. For three months, a PETA investigator who worked undercover at Creekside Birds found that this breeder trapped these sensitive, complex individuals in filthy wire cages caked with feces and littered with the remains of baby chicks so long dead that their tiny bodies had dried out. The breeder denied birds veterinary care for serious injuries and what staff said was a highly contagious virus and killed them in cruel, violent ways—or just left them to die slowly.

Instead of flight and freedom, these birds know only filth and fear.

No Room for Wings, but Caged Birds Still Try to Sing

Parakeets—often called budgies—are small parrots native to Australia. These remarkable individuals fly across vast landscapes in search of the best food and water sources. But Creekside imprisons parakeets used for breeding in row after row of dark metal cages measuring only about 9 inches in each direction. If the pairs survive and meet the owners’ demand that they “produce” at least five chicks every two months, they spend years in these prisons. The average parakeet’s wingspan is about 12 inches, meaning the birds can’t even spread their wings in these wiry jail cells. Many birds’ tail feathers were frayed or missing because there wasn’t enough room for them even to perch without their tail feathers rubbing against the cage bars.

In nature, parakeets travel in flocks of up to several hundred individuals, with only the sky as their limit. At this breeding factory, a senior worker crammed 50 or more birds per cage. The cages were bursting at the seams with young parakeets who had been torn from their parents. The young birds clung to the sides of the cages with their toes or huddled on the dirty floor. They didn’t have enough perches to rest on or space to stretch their wings without hitting another bird.

Parakeets are highly social individuals who have elaborate conversations with each other, and like humans, they have special areas in their brains for language. At Creekside, the deafening sound of 10,000 parakeets desperately attempting to communicate must have been torture for their sensitive ears.

Birds Driven Beyond Boredom

Parakeets’ active, inquisitive minds crave enrichment—toys and other objects they can chew on, play with, manipulate, and climb. But at this breeding factory, birds are kept in miserably bare cages with no enrichment. PETA’s investigator saw many birds pacing back and forth, bobbing up and down, and climbing the cage bars. These repetitive actions indicate profound frustration and psychological distress.

Parakeets show affection toward their families by feeding and preening each other, but the intensely traumatic conditions at Creekside drove them to attack. Birds at the operation even wounded and killed their own offspring—an indication of severe anxiety and deprivation. A co-owner admitted that this happened “all the time” and suggested that the birds might be “lacking” something, but he did nothing to improve their bleak existence.

No Bird Baths in Sight, Only ‘Poop Towers’

Parakeets love to bathe and enjoy rolling around in dewy grass. But the birds at Creekside had no escape from filth. Parakeets used for breeding were confined to sickening cages that were never cleaned—the trays beneath were only “scraped.” Management told the investigator that it would be too difficult to take the cages down from their floor-to-ceiling frames for cleaning. Creekside has been operating since approximately 2022—and the cages have apparently never been cleaned.

Feces accumulated in what a co-owner called “poop towers” that sometimes piled inches high in breeding cages. Old eggs were left to rot, and baby chicks were kept on soiled litter teeming with maggots—often next to the dried-out remains of their long-dead siblings. Birds’ water lines and the insides of food dispensers were covered with filth and grime.

The air was thick with dust, ammonia, and the stench of rotting bodies. Unsanitary environments like this are especially dangerous for birds, who have extremely delicate respiratory systems.

Unclean spaces like these can spread infectious diseases such as avian polyomavirus, which kills parakeet chicks. The virus also causes surviving birds to develop a feather-loss condition known as “French molt,” which a worker said Creekside’s parakeets had.

Birds’ Necks Crushed and Heads Ripped Off

A senior worker crudely crushed parakeets’ necks between his thumb and forefinger. A co-owner said he also killed birds this way, explaining that “if you pinch them hard enough, it smashes their throat.”

The same senior worker killed sick birds by flinging them against the ground and ripping some birds’ heads off. A co-owner admitted that he also tears birds’ heads off, explaining that “it’s faster if you rip it off.”

The senior worker left birds severely injured and suffering after throwing them. The investigator saw birds who were paralyzed, and one could only blink. An avian veterinarian with nearly 50 years of practice wrote that these birds were “in extreme fear.”

Workers explained that they used a BB gun to shoot and kill parakeets who escaped and they failed to capture. When two birds escaped outdoors in the cold, a worker said that “the cat will take care of them,” leaving them to die of predation or exposure.

The Bottom Line Is Bad for Birds

In the more than three months that the investigator worked for Creekside’s owners, they never heard of or saw a veterinarian visiting the facility, despite rampant illness and widespread suffering.

PETA’s investigator named this parakeet Nancy. When she became caught in a cage wire and was attacked by another stressed bird, she sustained severe injuries to her face and wing, even losing an eye. The investigator asked the breeding factory’s co-owner if he would call a veterinarian for Nancy, but he said, “Not [for] something like this.” Without the care she urgently needed, Nancy died after suffering for at least two weeks.

The investigator found that another parakeet—whom they named Thomas—was unable to stand and appeared to have a neurological problem. When they suggested that Thomas needed veterinary care, a senior worker laughed and said, “If we had [a veterinarian] come check on every bird, I don’t think we’d be profiting in here.”

Another worker found a baby bird with an injured wing, but the factory co-owner sought no care for him. The chick’s wing shriveled, blackened, and eventually fell off, leaving him with only a stump.

Death by the Hundreds

When management couldn’t sell birds—because they were underweight, had diarrhea, or were missing feathers—they put them in a “sick-bird cage.” If their condition didn’t improve after a week or two, a worker killed them. A veterinarian was never called to examine these birds, and many died without ever receiving care. In just 27 days, the investigator and other workers found nearly 1,400 dead birds—sometimes 100 or more in a single day.

One bird apparently died of starvation—her mate by her side—after a food dispenser became clogged. The male ate voraciously as soon as food was provided.

Workers discovered dead birds so routinely that they were expected simply to toss their bodies on the floor, waiting to sweep them into a pile at the end of their shift. The two or three workers expected to care for 10,000 birds and their offspring had to work quickly, so they often missed dead birds and left them to rot.

The Parakeet to Pet Store Pipeline

In nature, parakeets typically have babies about once a year, but this factory reduced them to nothing more than baby bird machines. When the exhausted females’ bodies slow down, the breeder sells or kills them.

You Can Help Parakeets and Other Birds

This is the ninth time PETA has gone undercover and exposed systemic suffering at animal dealers connected to big-box pet stores. We’ve repeatedly alerted PetSmart, Petco, and Petland to the misery in their supply chains, but they continue to do business with breeders like this one and the brokers who distribute their victims. Birds are not merchandise. These companies could take a step in the right direction by banning the sale of all birds.

Will you help birds like Nancy?

Please urge PetSmart, Petco, and Petland to stop selling birds—and let them know that you won’t shop at their stores until they stop selling all animals.