SINGAPORE - The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) will be taking action against 15 pet bird shops that do not comply with AVA licensing conditions.

AVA officers conducted unannounced inspections at 27 pet bird shops in September and October, it said in a statement on Friday (Nov 4).

This followed a report by the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) that many bird shops in Singapore breached conditions governing the welfare of the animals.

Acres, in their report released earlier on Friday, said that they investigated 36 bird shops from August to September. Of the 36, 27 did not meet AVA licensing conditions, Acres said.

Nineteen breached conditions governing the welfare of the animals.

Of these shops, 13 housed birds in dirty cages, 13 displayed sick birds and 11 did not provide clean drinking water to the birds. In addition, 15 shops did not display their pet shop grade decal.

AVA took action, including issuing fines and warnings, to 15 of the shops which it had found in its own inspections to have breached licencing conditions.

Acres also found 655 online listings selling birds, of which 273 listings were related to protected species.

AVA said it is working with Acres to look into these listings.

"We will not hesitate to take enforcement action against any licensees for any non-compliance detected by AVA," AVA said.

"We will continue with our regular inspections on pet shops, including bird retailers, to ensure that they comply with our licensing conditions."

AVA also encouraged members of the public to report errant pet shops to the agency.

"We urge members of the public to play their part by being vigilant and promptly reporting animal cruelty cases to AVA via our 24-hour hotline, 1800-476-1600," it said.

Note: An earlier version of this story attributed inspection figures by Acres to AVA. This has been corrected.