PETA urges Blackpool council to reject proposed parrot attraction

A plan for 64-66 Talbot Road in Blackpool has turned a vacant frontage into a welfare fight, with PETA urging Blackpool Council to reject a proposed Parrot Experience at the site.

The application, lodged by Lee Fenton Planning Services on behalf of Mr Przemyslaw Antonowicz, seeks a change of use for the ground floor premises to a Parrot Experience, described in planning documents as a sui generis use with internal alterations and a new fascia sign. The statement says the building appears to have been an A3 restaurant and more recently an ice cream shop. The proposal would include a reception area and a larger indoor bird space with artificial jungle-style foliage, where visitors would book sessions to interact with free-roaming parrots and other exotic birds.

That setup is exactly what has drawn PETA’s criticism. The group has launched a petition asking Blackpool Council to refuse the application, arguing that intelligent birds would be confined for public interaction inside an artificial indoor environment. PETA says parrots deserve freedom to fly and explore rather than being used for entertainment, and it has framed the Blackpool proposal as another example of animals being turned into spectacle for paying customers.

The issue is now moving through Blackpool’s formal planning process, and the council’s planning portal allows members of the public to view the application, submit comments and track its progress. That makes the Talbot Road proposal more than a private business idea. It is now a public test of what standards a commercial parrot attraction would have to meet before a council could regard it as acceptable.

For parrot keepers and welfare-minded visitors, the hardest questions are the obvious ones: how much space would birds have to move, how would noise be managed, who would handle the birds, and could the setting avoid stress from constant human contact? Those concerns sit alongside scientific work showing parrots have high social needs and are prone to welfare problems in captivity. A 2021 study found that larger-brained parrots were more prone to stereotypic behaviours in captivity, and suggested that more naturalistic diets and greater cognitive stimulation could improve welfare.

The World Parrot Trust has long taken a science-based approach to parrot conservation and husbandry, which is why attractions built around close-up interaction tend to draw scrutiny from welfare groups. In Blackpool, the debate has now landed squarely on one question: whether a Talbot Road parrot experience can ever be more than a bright indoor room and still meet the needs of the birds inside it.