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Avian Rescue is what we're all about. It is so BIG, we couldn't fit it on our Web Page!!

Send us your comments: wendy@journeysendavian.com

Wendy gets help with her sewing project from Romeo (Pretty boy) her latest addition.

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Journey's End Avian Rescue

Here at Journey's End Avian Rescue it is our mission to rescue and give shelter to abused exotic birds. With parrot mills on the rise and exotic birds being bred assembly line style the number of those abandoned and abused is growing. Dispite their beauty and intellingence, birds in general do not make good pets and it usually isn't until a new bird owner has their new bird for a short time that they discover why. In the last few years that I have been working with birds, the abuse and devastation has reduced me to tears. I started volunteering at a shelter for birds in-----and in 2006 decided to devote my life to rescueing abused birds.

For many reasons, birds and people don't mix. LIfespan: small birds such as cockatiels, one of the most common pet birds, has a lifespan of 20-25 years. Larger birds can live to be 75 years old and in may cases outlive their owners. Unfortunately we don't live in a society where people are able to make that kind of long term committment to a pet. Noise: birds are very noisy and this behavior cannot be trained out of them. Stories of birds being locked in dark closets, left in basements, and yelled at are all too common. Why are birds so noisy? It's the way they communicate and sometimes just because it's fun! They are loud because in the wild they have to be heard over the dense jungle canopy. Birds are also very social and communication is a social activity for them. Left alone in a cage void of the socialization their basic instincts crave birds will not only scream but engage is self mutilation and I have seen birds kill themsevles this way. Feather picking and selft mutilation are a by-product of captivity as this behavior has never been observed in wild birds. Except for humans, birds are the only other animal that engages in this kind of behavior

After 15 years of teaching, it was time for me to satisfy my deep desire to work with animals. It was too late for me to go back to school to become a vet tech or even satify my childhood longing to work in a zoo. Before I started rescuing birds I sort of had a zoo, dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rabbits, and a corn snake. I had worked with cats and dogs and was looking for something different, although I didn't know quite what that was I figured I'd know once I found it. It was on the internet here that I stumbled onto a bird rescue a little over and hours drive from my home. I didn't know much about birds except that I was facinated by them, as most of us are. It was called Foster Parrots and the site told of a gentleman who had been rescuing exotic birds and had virtually given up his home for them. This I had to see. Just as it was the very first day that I entered a classroom, I knew I had found it, so it was the first day I visited Foster Parrots. I had never been so close to such beautiful creatures, many with very sad stories. This man had indeed given up his home for them, there were birds in every room of the house, including the bathroom, a large two story barn and the adjoining breezeway all contained birds approximately 250 birds, species I had never seen. Some were in cages, others had freedom to fly about. At the conclusion of the tour I signed up to volunteer. It was an hour and a half drive, but it was worth every trip. Marc Johnson, the director of Foster Parrots, has a passion for saving birds, a contagious passion and it's a good thing, birds in captivity need someone to speak for them. It a bigger problem then most people are aware of.

Birds and friends

Birds can live quite comfortably with most other household pets such as dogs and cats. However, they should always be supervised. Birds can be unpredictable as can dogs, cats, or children and accidents can happen very quickly. I recommend that all interactions with other household pets and children be supervised. Birds should NEVER be left alone with children or other pets. This is for the safety of the bird as well as the other pets and children in your household. My cat, Baby, likes the birds and has never raised a paw to them, but I always supervise her when the birds are out. I don't leave my two Welsh Corgis alone with the birds either. As the saying goes, "better safe, than sorry."