Save Companion Parrots through Rescue & Education

It has been a busy summer for PEAC.  The summer started out with being invited to the West Valley Bird Society and giving the talk titled “No More Room.”  This lecture focused in on the plight of the domestic parrots currently in the United States.  The data that was collected for this lecture was heartbreaking.  The numbers speak for themselves:

• Hundreds of thousands of abandoned parrots
• Parrot ownership has soared a staggering 147% over the past 20 years
• 11.6 million companion parrots reported in 1990
• 60 million companion parrots as of 2010
• US captive parrot population could swell to 100 million by 2020
• 2.5 million parrots are hatched by US breeders yearly
• 20,000 parrots illegally enter the USA from Mexico each year, with another 5,000 smuggled in from elsewhere

With those statistics, the work PEAC does is even more important than ever before.  It is our hope that in the fall we will be reaching out to the local school districts and college campuses to help educate the public on this terrible epidemic we are facing.  We are also speaking with the West LA Bird Club about presenting to their organization the lecture mentioned above.

Since the beginning of the year we have had eight successful adoptions.  Though being able to report the adoptions that took place is a wonderfully positive note to focus on, I must also report that the numbers coming into the foster program continue to soar. We currently have 17 parrots in our program, five on the waiting list, and four just starting the review process to determine if the foster program is a good fit for them.  Should it be determined that a bird is a good candidate for our foster program, it will then be placed on the waiting list.

Due to travel schedules this summer, we have not done very many outreach events, but have calendared for the rest of the year at least one event a month.  It is only through our volunteers that we are able to accomplish the educational outreach that really defines PEAC’s mission. 

We held a second quarterly meeting in which some new items were mentioned.  We have developed an advisory committee to the director.  This group of volunteers will help the director in making some of the more complex and difficult decisions that PEAC faces on a regular basis.  We have also updated the requirements for being a volunteer, and all those that were present at the meeting agreed on implementing a policy that a volunteer must a least attend one volunteer quarterly meeting and participate in two outreach events per calendar year in order to remain a volunteer with PEAC. 

The most encouraging item that was talked about at the last volunteer meeting was the upcoming yearly fundraiser PEAC does with the help of Globalgiving.  This year it will start the weekend after Thanksgiving and end on December 31^st.  Last year we were able to collect just over $10,000 to be used to support the work PEAC does.  It is my hope that with the new energy in the volunteer group we will not only meet that same dollar amount this year, but will surpass it, with the hope of doubling that amount, so PEAC may continue to expand its work in education and adoption.