Please visit the World Parrot Refuge News page for further updates.
Urgent donation drive to help rescue parrots from auction!
October 1, 2006
We have learned that on this coming Saturday, October 7, a group of parrots are to be auctioned at a general livestock and "exotic pet" auction. These intelligent, beautiful creatures are being billed as "items" to be sold. These parrots have likely already been traumatized by life circumstances that led to them being auctioned in the first place. We can't stop such auctions but we can rescue as many parrots as we can from the "pet-go-around" and give them a true "Home for Life". Just because they will go to the highest bidder, their sale doesn't mean they will be guaranteed a happy and healthy life where they will be loved and understood.
You may remember that we rescued three King Parrots from a similar auction in Victoria, all of whom are doing very well. The female was ill when we rescued her but our avian vet, Dr Anne MacDonald of Night Owl Bird Hospital, saved her life and now she is flying around and having a real life instead of being used as a breeding machine.
Even if we can only save a few parrots at least they will get the life they deserve. Please help us raise as much as possible between now and Friday night for the auction taking place the next day. Every donation will help, no matter how small, because if enough caring people help it will make a difference. Visit the World Parrot Refuge website for donation options and please let other caring people know. On behalf of these desperate parrots, thank you.
Help us Collect Signatures for our Petition to the House of Commons!
October 1, 2006
Please help us make a difference by collecting signatures for our petition. All the time wild-caught parrots are allowed to be brought into Canada, the greater the responsibility we have for not only these birds, but all the birds resident in Canada who are at risk of being culled in a viral pandemic. Only about 20% of wild-caught birds survive the terrible journey - many with lifelong disabilities from traps and the "packing crates" used to bring them to North America.
The U.S. has had legislation against the importation of wild-caught birds since 1992. It's time for Canada to do the same! Our petition is to be sent to the House Of Commons, to ask for legislation banning the importation of all wild-caught birds. The House of Commons will only accept paper-based petitions (on legal-sized or letter-sized paper), so we need your help to print and get as many signatures on these petitions as you can.
Please go to the World Parrot Refuge website to print/download the petition. Once you have gathered your signatures, please mail them as quickly as possible to FLOPRS, Box 645, Coombs BC V0R 1M0.
Parrots In Peril
July 7, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT: Wendy Huntbatch
Telephone: 250-951-1166
wendy@worldparrotrefuge.org
A snafu with Revenue Canada is threatening the World Parrot Refuge, a unique animal rescue society and home to 500 orphaned parrots on Vancouver Island near Parksville.
Society co-founder Wendy Huntbatch says the non profit group has been struggling to pay a $13,000 bill for employee deductions and has reached an impasse with Revenue Canada staff in Victoria, who have given notice that they will seize refuge assets July 17th if the tax bill is not paid.
Huntbatch and her board of directors are appealing to the public, and to corporate donors, to help the refuge society in its continued efforts to house, feed and care for abandoned and abused parrots, a problem that is reaching epidemic proportions as more people buy, then sell, these long-lived pets.
Huntbatch, who opened the non-profit refuge on the Island last year, moved the birds she has been rescuing for the last 13 years after Avian Influenza (AI) in B.C.'s lower mainland threatened her flock in 2004. The series of large steel buildings, (which Huntbatch's family mortgaged their small business to build and which is also threatened by the tax man), house a colorful menagerie of exotic cockatoos, macaws and other parrots, many which require medical care. Unlike most parrot refuge operations, which adopt parrots, Huntbatch's refuge is designed to provide a "home for life" for these birds which are often shunted from home to home over their 20-80 year life spans.
The number of homeless parrots, or the "parrot displacement epidemic", continues to grow with pet stores selling birds to owners who aren't prepared for the high level of care these intelligent, but often difficult animals require. Trafficking of exotic animals, especially birds, is a $10-$20 billion business, with some individual birds valued at more than $10,000.
The refuge, located in Coombs, B.C. is open for public tours.