The Refuge is deeply grateful to staff, volunteers, donors and supporters, who have helped us through the rough times and challenges of 2007. We could not have done it without you, and we hope you'll continue to help us in 2008 to secure this important "Home for Life" for all of our special flocks. There are so many people who don't know about us yet - even the locals on Vancouver Island! Please let your friends know about the Refuge so they can support us too, even if it's just by coming out to visit and say hello. Our flocks love visitors, and so do we! Thank you!

Thank You to all our Supporters in 2007!

We owe a big thank you to Dori Tomra of Prince George, who recently undertook a unique collection drive on our behalf. If you have ever shopped at Canadian Tire you will know that you receive Canadian Tire "money" towards future purchases. Many people don't bother to use this "money", so Dori collected $26.15 of it amongst her friends. This donation will help us to buy four new brooms, a mop, and some scrubbers. These are some of the essential cleaning supplies we go through each month at the Refuge, to keep the parrots' residences clean and healthy.

Perhaps others will be inspired by Dori's efforts to take up similar collections -- to have fun while helping our special birds at the same time. Many thanks to Dori for sparking a creative fundraising effort for the Refuge!

Recently, we received a special virtual adoption request. On the occasion of their upcoming wedding on August 25, 2007, Cheryl Rutherford and her fiance, Chris Seath, are sharing their special day with one of our feathered friends. In lieu of the usual wedding favours, Cheryl and Chris are making a donation towards Buster's virtual adoption! They plan to share Buster's picture, his story, and his home at the World Parrot Refuge with their guests. Thank you, Cheryl and Chris, for creating a unique and caring opportunity to help Buster, and for sharing it with your friends. Everyone at the World Parrot Refuge — staff, volunteers, and parrots alike — wish you all the best on your special day and for a happy, healthy and prosperous life together!

What an eventful and wonderful week it has been! We have many thanks to give to some wonderful people who are helping to make a real difference by providing a home for life for our psittacine friends.

The very generous benefactors who donated the money for the new Macaw House visited us again and made another incredible donation! These dedicated bird lovers, who wish to remain anonymous, have changed the lives of so many birds. We are so grateful and indebted to them for their kindness.

Al and Ria - two of our special volunteers who come in five nights a week from 5.30 pm to 9 pm to hand feed more than 100 incoming and special needs birds, and then take those who cannot fly out for a walk in the evening sunshine - made another huge commitment. They donated $2000 to pay for Chi Chi Macaw's surgery. They are now her virtual adoption sponsors. Thank you so much, Al and Ria.

We also received a further $584 from the great people at Postal Depot 4, Langford, and Postal Depot 1, Victoria. These funds are the proceeds from the goodie stores that these special folk operate on behalf of Ben, Maggie, and Andy Macaw. Well done and thank you, everyone!

The owners of the Century 21 Real Estate office in Slave Lake, Alberta, came to visit the four birds that they have rescued over the years and brought to the sanctuary to live in a flock lifestyle. They were thrilled to see how well the birds are doing. They also donated $500 for each bird for their annual virtual adoption support. Thank you - you are fantastic!

In more wonderful news, Teko, the Citron Crested cockatoo, has a new virtual family. Heather Clarkson - the full virtual adoptive mom of Moses the Greater Sulfur Crested cockatoo - is now paying a further $20 a month towards Teko's support, and supplying all the peas he can eat! Huge hugs and thanks to Heather.

Christa Kangas has taken on the incredible responsibility of assisting with the cost of supporting Joey, the Congo African Grey. Thank you, Christa! You'll be thrilled to know that he has beautiful red tail feathers now. We'll post a new picture soon. Joey is so happy about it that he wants to show them off to you all!

Jane and Carmen, our volunteer webmasters, are now full virtual adoption sponsors who are helping to support our huge flight of beautiful lovebirds, including the fourteen new lovebird arrivals. This monthly pledge goes a long way towards all the food and cleaning care they need.

The staff, volunteers, and the parrots of the World Parrot Refuge send a huge thank you to everyone, and hope to see you at the Refuge soon!

Recently, the Refuge was the recipient of an overwhelming outpouring of kindness and generosity from the many amazing people in Vancouver who held a yard sale and raffle on our behalf.

We would like to send a huge Thank You to everybody involved: our veterinarian, Dr Anne McDonald, and all the staff of the Night Owl Bird Hospital; Vicki Ballard and all the staff of the West Coast Tropical Bird Studio; and all the volunteers from the Greyhaven Exotic Bird Sanctuary.

Dr McDonald conceived the idea and got her staff involved; Vicki and Eric Ballard and their son Keith from West Coast Tropical Bird Studio sorted, priced and stored all the items as well as worked tirelessly the day of the raffle; and all the wonderful volunteers from Greyhaven Exotic Bird Sanctuary worked hard to raise money for us. We are so thankful to you all!

On August 26, 2006, they held the yard sale and laboured all day in the hot sun to raise an amazing $1665.55 - all for the birds here at the World Parrot Refuge.

We also owe huge thanks to Vicki Ballard and the staff of the West Coast Tropical Bird Studio who ran an incredible raffle to raise money for our birds. They donated most of the prizes, including a bird climbing toy worth $200! Wendy and Horst were present for the draw of the raffle on Wednesday, September 6, 2006. There were five fabulous prizes to be won and they raised an amazing $2500!

Due to the efforts of this incredible group of people, $4165.55 was raised for the parrots of the World Parrot Refuge, and has had an awesome impact on our goal to provide a loving, stable "Home for Life" for over 500 parrots. On behalf of our special residents, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Recently, a young girl visited the Refuge close to her 12th birthday. On learning the plight of our residents, she immediately decided that instead of gifts, she would ask her friends to give her money instead, so she could make a donation for a cause she believed in. She raised $57.00 for the Refuge - a wonderful gift of love from a compassionate young lady!

Also recently, another special lady sent us a beautiful handmade card containing cheques that added up to $305. Every year she holds an Angel Party to celebrate the life of a very dear deceased friend, and everyone who is invited has to bring a cheque for a minimum of $25, so they can make a donation to a charity. This year, the World Parrot Refuge was the recipient of this loving gift!

There are so many people making a difference to the parrots of the Refuge, and we appreciate everyone's efforts to help us give them a Home for Life. Thank you!

We have more than 500 parrots at the Refuge, and many of them are in very poor shape. The use of oxygen is vital to give us enough time for medications to take effect. We use oxygen regularly, and it is desirable to have the ability to produce oxygen on site, rather than risk running out of an oxygen cylinder at a crucial time.

Karen Loveys (a local realtor) takes part each year in an auction to raise money for charity. We were very fortunate that the World Parrot Refuge was their Charity of choice for this year. When asked what we might need to raise funds for, we explained our need for an oxygen concentrator.

Karen contacted Annette Young of VitalAire - a company that supplies oxygen concentrators to people suffering from conditions such as chronic lung disease, lung cancer, and cystic fibrosis. Annette in turn contacted a family who no longer needed the concentrator that had been used by their mother, and asked if they would like to donate the concentrator to the Refuge. The family agreed and were pleased to make a wonderful gift and legacy of the concentrator: an item that we could never have afforded.

We cannot begin to express our gratitude to Karen, Annette, and this special family for the donation of the oxygen concentrator to our facility. For us to have this equipment is on a par with a blind person receiving the gift of sight. You have made a dream come true for us. Thank you so much!

Once upon a time, a man whose life had been dramatically changed by an accident needed help to care for some of his family of cockatiels. He loves the birds with all of his heart, but realizes that his new limitations have made it impossible for him to care for them all in the manner they were accustomed to. He decided to travel a long way to check out the World Parrot Refuge as a suitable home for his birds.

He was thrilled with the facility and the care and attention received by the birds here. He knew immediately that he had made the right choice and made arrangements to bring the birds here as soon as possible. He decided to keep only two birds at home, so that he could give them all his love and attention.

David really wanted to help as much as possible. He saw that we were short of sheets and towels in the “Judy Langille Wellness Centre” and his mission was to increase our stock! Over the following weeks, he returned with a large donation of them.

To further show his dedication to the Refuge, David saw that we didn’t have a washer and drier at the Refuge, and that the laundry had to be carted off to be laundered elsewhere. He noticed at the same time that on our wish list of items was a washer and drier, David pledged to find us a great working set. True to his word, David again returned to us with a great set. We can’t thank him enough for his donation - yet another dream come true.

Thank you, David!

July 21, 2006

What a turbulent month this has been! The nightmare began on the Canada Day long weekend when we discovered that our bank account had been seized by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Soon after, we received a phone call informing us that two CRA officers would arrive on the week commencing July 17th, to seize whatever assets necessary to sell and pay off the outstanding taxes. The media gave incredible attention to our desperate call for help and we were soon surrounded by wonderful people all doing their best to help the special birds of the World Parrot Refuge.

Caring people like you opened your hearts and your pockets to prevent impending disaster. The response was overwhelming! Your generosity and interest in helping us to improve the plight of parrots in captivity has been awesome. The words “thank you” seem small compared to the help you provided, but it comes straight from our hearts to yours!

Furthermore, the amazing people at the Great Canadian Casinos stepped up and bailed our Society out from under the hammer of the CRA. This was an incredible act on their part, and we are so grateful that they have helped us to protect these birds from a potentially dreadful fate.

Your support, and that of many other caring people, has made such a huge difference in ensuring we can continue the work we do to help these and many other parrots who need a “Home for Life”. Over the past 13 years, we have given more than 500 parrots the security and love of a permanent home, where they live a free-flight flock lifestyle. With continuing support, we can continue our work and reach out to help hundreds more. We can also continue our efforts to educate people about the real requirements of parrots, in the hope that future generations will prefer to see these amazing, long-lived beings live in their natural environment.

Once more, thank you for your help and interest. Please check our website frequently for coming developments and additions and, of course, come out to visit us at the Refuge!

Yours sincerely,
Wendy Huntbatch

So many people have contributed to helping us make the World Parrot Refuge a true "Home for Life" for so many parrots - whether it be by donating time, money, medical equipment and other supplies, food, toys and more. We'd like to say a heartfelt thank you. We can't do this alone and rely on donations to keep the Refuge going. We hope that we can look forward to your support in years to come - even promoting our needs by sharing this website with other concerned people is a huge help. Thank you!