By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – An online petition signed by more than 300 people claims removing the tips of a flamingo’s wings is ‘mulitation’ and calls on Bloomington city leaders to ban the practice when a new flamingo exhibit opens at the Miller Park Zoo next year, but the city’s parks and recreation director said that’s not necessary.

Jay Tetzloff said the flamingos which are being loaned from the Cincinnati Zoo have their wing feathers clipped every six months to a year – something he said the birds don’t feel. The flamingos that are coming from the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas have had their wings removed within the first week of their birth through what’s called pinioning.

PODCAST: Listen to Scott and Colleen’s interview with Tetzloff on WJBC. 

“Research has shown it’s not a painful procedure at all if you do it in the first seven days (after birth),” Tetzloff said. “If you do it after seven days, I would consider it to be unethical.”

Tetzloff said the birds can easily be spooked, plus there’s a chance they could fly away too if they were allowed.

“This is a standard industry method of flight restriction,” Tetzloff said. “It is in the best interest of these birds not to fly. Some people might not understand that. These birds spend almost all of their time on the ground.”

Tetzloff says the zoo doesn’t have a policy yet for what it will do with newborn flamingos.

A petition at www.change.org is calling on the Bloomington City Council to adopt a ‘no-mutilation’ policy.

The exhibit is scheduled to open spring.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].