It is most definitely cruel to keep any animal or bird in captivity; worse still confined in cages. An animal or bird is so carefree in its own environment. It knows of no restrictions. It goes about its own business of eating and drinking and creating babies. Even domestic animals would like to walk about and act according to their instincts and desires. Caging them would deprive them of this. How often have we seen caged animals pacing their cages in futile attempts to escape? Can we imagine the frustration that they feel? What do we get in making a creature furious, frustrated and depressed? Yet humans do it all the time. Since we would think it cruel if someone were to cage us, it stands to reason that we should not do it to others, even animals and birds. The sense of justice we hold so dear when it comes to humans should be extended to all living creatures.
Besides being cruel, it serves little purpose to want to cage animals and birds. Wild animals and birds being caged up serve our egoistic pleasure of power over others and that's about all that we do. Cultivating such natures does not do us any good; actually developing such natures will make us cruel and egoistic. Left in the wild a bird does all sorts of things; when kept in the cage, it just sits there. Granted that birds are beautiful to look at, we cannot observe the bird at its best when it is caged. To watch the bird at its best we should go to