Our Mission is a Life-Long Commitment The Oasis Sanctuary is a life-care facility for captive Exotic birds.
04/01/2025
FACES OF THE TRADE 😥
~ Our last Arizona Gives Day Story ~ (Please share our story with others)
Thank you for staying with us through this year's Arizona Gives Day campaign and reading our stories. We hope that the emails shared are informative and provide a glimpse of what the Parrot Crisis is about. 💔https://www.azgives.org/organization/TheOasisSanctuary
In January, while people carried on with their daily lives, a large parrot confiscation was silently underway.
Over 200 parrots were found in a severe state of neglect. These birds were not loved or properly cared for. They were merely inventory, waiting to be sold. The authorities were notified about these parrots living in a neglectful, cruelty/hoarding, and possibly illegal smuggling situation.
While state and local authorities debated jurisdiction, the birds sat waiting for rescue. Even though this case involved law enforcement, no agencies could offer funding or had the capacity to care for these birds. In cases like this, the alternative is euthanasia. Thankfully, a well-respected and compassionate non-profit organization, SoCal Parrot, stepped up to help these vulnerable birds and save them from a death sentence.
The active rescue was named Operation 33 Kilos, which represents the total weight of the birds confiscated. The name sounds like an illegal drug bust, and sadly parrots, like drugs are in the same horrific ring of trade. Be it animals or drugs, it's all about the money.
Sadly, this tragic reality is just one case of the many rescue situations that occur where parrots are treated as commodities.
The horrific conditions that the birds were kept in led to the need for their isolation upon rescue to allow time for communicable disease testing to clear them for future placement with qualified facilities, parrot sanctuaries, and rescues. They have been undergoing rehabilitation and testing while in quarantine.
This was the perfect storm of hoarding/cruelty, breeding for the pet trade/bird expos, and trafficking. The perfect example of everything that is wrong with the pet trade, every aspect of it.
No parrot should have to suffer like these birds have. If not for the rescue community, birds in situations like this would simply perish.
👏 We applaud the concerted effort of many amazing volunteer parrot and wildlife specialists from other rescues and sanctuaries who traveled from afar to lend a helping hand:
Foster Parrots, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, Pasadena Humane Society, Mickaboo Companion Bird Rescue, The Oasis Sanctuary, and many other individuals.
This was the perfect storm of hoarding/cruelty, breeding for the pet trade/bird expos, and trafficking. The perfect example of everything that is wrong with the pet trade, every aspect of it.
No parrot should have to suffer like these birds have. If not for the rescue community, birds in situations like this would simply perish.
We applaud the concerted effort of many amazing volunteer parrot and wildlife specialists from other rescues and sanctuaries who traveled from afar to lend a helping hand:
Foster Parrots, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, Pasadena Humane Society, Mickaboo Companion Bird Rescue, The Oasis Sanctuary, and many other individuals.
🫐 We share BERRY'S STORY (by Pat Latas of SoCal Parrot):
Berry was the bird at the intersection of hoarding/smuggling/pet trade. He was a White-fronted Amazon that came into care as part of this 300-bird confiscation by state and local authorities. The culprit had been suspected as being involved with illegal trafficking, and was described as “an opportunist” dealing in sub-legal or outright illegal trade. He was arrested by local authorities on very serious animal cruelty charges, and the birds were taken into custody. Most of them eventually made it to our purpose-built isolation facility, for intensive testing, treatment and veterinary care.
We first met Berry in the shelter holding the confiscated birds. He was the first bird examined and immediately put into “get him to ICU –NOW” critical level. A miracle and testament to the strong will to live in parrots; and even though he fought to live and we did our best to help him...our best was not good enough. Not good enough to overcome years of abuse and neglect. Not enough to overcome the consequences of kidnapping as an infant, smuggling, hoarding, the underground and the overt pet trade. Not enough to overcome the myth of pet expos, lure of flea markets, and abject ignorance.
Berry was, to be blunt, a dead-bird-perching when we took him into care. We did not think he would survive the transport to the quarantine facility. It was a testament to the resilience of parrots that he stayed alive for a month, AND gained 40 grams of weight (nearly 30% of his original weight) while fighting illness! Berry was always sweet, and seemed to understand that the things we did made him more comfortable. He was in ICU with oxygen supplementation and intensive supportive care and treatment for more than a month. He won our hearts and everyone was hopeful. But, it was all just too much. So let us not think he died in vain, and let us keep that hope for the rest of the nearly 200 birds that have survived the ordeal so far.
🌈 Berry's last moments were very peaceful and quiet in the warm California sunshine, a clear blue sky overhead, filled with bird song and a soft breeze and...liberty. The blue sky was his last view of this earth. And the first view of the after.
We celebrate Berry and his sweetness, strength, and courage, and to remember that many more are NOT free and deserve our help and care and our best work. More to come on that.
💚❤Fly Free Berrybird! You inspire us to continue the fight, and to stay resilient against the odds! And to find in our soul the will to fly free ourselves and help others to liberty.
Berry is an example of a tragic ending for so many parrots from these cases. Parrot confiscations are not organization-centric; it affects all rescues and sanctuaries. As they say, It takes a village, and the rescue community is just that. Many have banded together to ensure these parrots will have a safe future. But we cannot do it alone; we need supporters who will help.
The Oasis will be accepting some of the birds from this unfortunate ordeal. The ones taken from the wild that want to be left alone, will be provided a safe haven.
https://www.azgives.org/organization/TheOasisSanctuary
https://www.socalparrot.org/
https://www.operation33kilos.com/
