I don't judge when people make an
informed choice to clip their birds wings using the proper technique.
There are a variety of reasons that can be helpful or positive for the entire home and things that can help the bird adapt, as demonstrated by a couple of posts in this very thread. Yes, some people use it as a bandaid too often because they are either lazy or don't know what else to do but it can also be a tool when everything else has failed.
I used to clip Peanut's wings (with good intentions but AA introduced me to new ideas and I made the decision to stop. I feared her getting out into the living room with the dogs in the winter when doors needed to be open due to how I heat this house and wing clipping worked. So would other things that didn't involve clipping that I do now instead. Thanks AA!)
I don't know if anyone really believed how well she could fly clipped. It didn't do much and honestly after her being flighted for a several years now have realized I was basically fooling myself. She could fly so well with the custom clip I gave her the only real difference is in her confidence and the ability to take off from the floor, which could save her life.
What this thread seems about to me isn't so much wing clipping as it is "wing butchering."
It breaks my heart when I see a bird with a complete chop job. If you are going to do it, do it right. Why are there so many people out there, where it is literally part of their job, who have no idea how to do a proper clip? And owners?
Even if the owner is partially at fault there is no way that poor bird should have had so many feathers cut.