Feeling and sharing your pain, my dear - it also makes my heart ache. Many wealthier people here in Asia cage birds. I have come to understand that it is the reaction of someone who has been poor and without home-family-comfort... when they get to a place of relative abundance, they think they are doing the birds a favour by protecting them, sheltering them, removing the need for foraging. Here it is also a sign of abundance that one has enough to feed the bird and to house it "well". Mostly though, I feel they are just sad people who have lost their connection with their own wildness. And that those birds take their karma and the pain of the caged person and are part of some bigger energy transmutation, I feel. It is hard to allow people the choice to be different and to make choices which limit the freedom of others. Send love and song and healing energy to the little birds when you pass. x