We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of one of our new chukar friends, who we named Samosa. Samosa was rescued in a suburban backyard. She found refuge under a deck, but thankfully we were able to coax her out, capture her, and get her safely to the sanctuary. As I evaluated her I was shocked that she was even alive – she was skin and bones, the most emaciated bird I had ever seen. Her beak was so long that she was unable to get anything in her mouth to eat at all, and clearly that had been the case for a long time. I trimmed her beak and offered her some critical care mash, which she ate enthusiastically. Who knows how long it had been since this poor girl had eaten? After she ate she snuggled up in the corner of her enclosure and slept deeply – I actually had to physically touch her to rouse her when it was time for her next meal. Samosa was so exhausted physically, but mentally she was sharp and showed a tremendous desire to keep going. As the days went on she showed us her spunky, loving, opinionated personality, and we quickly fell in love with her. Samosa’s favorite time of day was her meal times. She would stick her whole head into her bowl of mash, only to realize what she’d done and immediately start shaking her head ferociously flinging mash EVERYWHERE in the process 😆 After her meal she would allow me to hold her for a moment so I could do my best to carefully clean as much mash as possible from her feathers. I was never able to get all of it off really, but Samosa really was the happiest when she was wearing her dinner and this is how I will always remember her ❤
When we rescue someone, I always envision the future they will get to experience in sanctuary. I pictured Samosa flying in her aviary with the other four chukars we rescued, happy and free. I imagined her frail, skeletal figure plump and round the way a chukar’s body should be. I imagined her dust bathing in the sunshine and pecking impatiently at her food bowl when it
A quick Atheon update! Our sweet girl is doing well! She is stable and tolerating her medications well. She is enthusiastically drinking her critical care formula and even starting to show some interest in solid foods! We are keeping in close contact with her veterinarian and while she is not out of the woods yet, we are very hopeful that she will continue to recover. Please keep her in your thoughts!
We have some very happy, very exciting news to share! Everyone, meet Celeste 🩵 Celeste is a budgie who, like Grumpy, was purchased from a pet store and discarded by her humans once she became inconvenient. Also similarly to Grumpy, Celeste was kept alone, without another bird companion 😞 When our amazing friends at For The Love Of Birds - New Jersey Exotic Bird Rescue told us about her, we knew that she was going to be the perfect friend for our Grumpy girl! We introduced the girls to each other and they formed an instant connection. It has been so beautiful watching them preen each other, chat together, and of course share their favorite snacks! At night the girls perch on their rope and sleep shoulder to shoulder, making sure that they can each feel the other’s presence 🥹 Celeste is much more wary of humans than Grumpy is, but she is slowly catching on that we are not here to hurt her and instead just want to see her happy. Like most budgies Celeste was kept on an all-seed diet in her previous home, which can cause a wide variety of health issues. Thankfully she has transitioned to pellets beautifully, and is even starting to show some interest in vegetables! Of course, nothing comes close to sharing some millet with a beloved friend 🥰
Welcome home, Celeste!
We would like to thank our friends at For The Love of Birds - New Jersey Exotic Bird Rescue for their care and dedication towards all of their birds both large and small! We are honored to have had the opportunity to work with this organization and recommend them to anyone looking for a parrot
Tonight we received a call from Atheon’s veterinarian. She had received Atheon’s bloodwork results, and thankfully for the most part everything looks good! A certain type of white blood cell called a heterophil was noted to be elevated, but that is to be expected with the GI upset that Atheon is currently experiencing. The important stuff like the values that tell us about Atheon’s organ function were all within normal limits, and so we can safely rule out anything really scary that might be going on underneath the surface. This was extremely welcome news, we are so relieved! 😮💨 We will continue Atheon’s medications, critical care formula, etc. and closely monitor her as she recovers. Please keep her in your thoughts 🩷
We would like to take a moment to sincerely thank each and every one of you for helping us yesterday 😭 Emergencies are scary, and we are so grateful to you all for helping us when we really needed it. We are so lucky to have this community!
This video was taken a few months ago. I was taking shelter in Atheon’s aviary during a downpour and got to watch the ducks enjoying the rain 🥰 It’s little moments like this that are the most magical to me about sanctuary work. Only a few months before this video was taken, Atheon was living at The Barn Restaurant. Over 100 ducks lived at The Barn and resources were extremely limited, so Atheon had to fight for everything she had in order to survive. I wonder if in this video, as she was watching the rain fall, she was thinking about how different her life looks now. I hope that she feels better soon so she can get back out to the aviary with her flockmates. After all spring will be here soon, and Atheon never misses the opportunity to play in a mud puddle!
One of the most rewarding aspects of the work we do is seeing the animals we have rescued living happily in their forever homes! Two Barn Restaurant survivors, a pair of stunning Rouen girls, found the most incredible home with a vegan activist and microsanctuary caretaker earlier this year. They have a handsome drake boyfriend (rescued by our dear friends at The Good Shepherd Animal Sanctuary!) and recently moved to a larger property with lots of room to stretch their wings! It is hard to imagine that this time last year these girls were starving on a frozen lake with no shelter. We are so grateful for the love and devotion all of our adoptive families give their beloved animals!
Right before we left for Pennsylvania, we responded to a request to rescue six domestic Pekin ducks who were dumped at an apartment complex in Hilliard. Our incredible volunteer Shay not only assisted in their capture, but took them back to her sanctuary to foster them. Less than a day after their rescue, Shay reported that one of the ducks, a handsome male Pekin she named Baloo, was limping. We took Baloo to the veterinarian where X-Rays revealed that his ankle joints were severely misaligned. Unfortunately, a problem like this is not curable. We can’t put Baloo’s joints back into place, but we can treat his pain and give him every chance to live a happy, comfortable life! Baloo was started on anti-inflammatories, and thankfully they have seemed to really help! So many of the domestic ducks we have rescued, especially Pekin ducks, have been found with some sort of foot or leg problem affecting their mobility. It is hard to imagine the pain that Baloo endured, day in and day out, as he struggled to walk or swim around the pond 😭 We are so thankful to the Good Samaritans who watched out for Baloo and his friends, and did all they could to keep them alive until they could be rescued. Baloo is alive today because a few good people saw something and decided to take action -- they are true heroes!
Baloo spent no time at all capturing his foster mom’s heart, and we are absolutely ECSTATIC to announce that Baloo and his friend Sparrow (also rescued from Hilliard) are officially foster fails! Baloo and Sparrow join a beautiful flock of rescued ducks (including two Barn Restaurant survivors 🥰) and will enjoy the highest quality care possible for the rest of their days. Shay is such a wonderful friend to the sanctuary, and we couldn’t imagine a better family for these beautiful babies than hers 🥹❤ Congratulations, Baloo and Sparrow!
Shortly after wrapping up our massive Barn Restaurant rescue, we stumbled upon another situation involving dozens of ducks in desperate need of rescue at a popular campground. The ducks had no shelter, no protection from predators or the elements, no medical care, and were all completely emaciated. During our first visit to the campground, we rescued two Pekin ducks. We named them Molly and Mallary, and got them immediately to the veterinarian as they were both suffering from significant limps. On X-Ray, we discovered that these beautiful girls had most likely been hit by a car or another vehicle. The campground is a busy place, with cars and golf carts zooming around all over the property as campers enjoy their getaways. It would be very easy for a slow Pekin duck to get caught underneath one of these vehicles, and unfortunately that is exactly what happened to Molly and Mallary. The X-Rays showed that the collision shattered Mallary’s knee and fractured Molly’s left leg. Due to the girls having to constantly move to find food, run from predators, etc. their fractures never had a chance to heal, but their veterinarian was confident that with rest, pain management, and time they could! We got the girls on a regimen of anti-inflammatory medications, antibiotics, a quality diet, and lots of rest and relaxation. Every week that went by, Molly and Mallary gained a little more weight and became a little more mobile. When we brought them back for their follow-up appointment, we were absolutely elated when the X-Rays revealed that their fractures had healed!
Despite the fact that their fractures are technically healed now, because Molly and Mallary did not receive the prompt veterinary care they deserved right when the accident happened their bones could not be set correctly. Instead, bony callus formed and fused the fracture together. While this was definitely the best case scenario for Molly and Mallary’s situation (and definitely a lot less painful than walking o
Last week we received a message from a Good Samaritan who saw six domestic Pekin ducks at an apartment complex pond in Hilliard. Recognizing that Pekin ducks are a domestic breed with no survival instincts, she reached out to us for help! We arrived at the pond early in the morning and spotted all six ducks huddling together near the water. Upon seeing us, the hungry ducks immediately all waddled towards us! We were able to pick them up one by one and transfer them into a carrier, making this one of the easiest rescues we’ve ever completed!
This group of six consists of three males and three females. The ducks are all very young, and thankfully besides some minor bumblefoot appear to be in good health. Residents at the complex told us that the ducks first appeared there two months ago, and were being continually chased and bullied by the geese and other wild waterfowl who live at the pond. Domestic ducks are much slower than their wild cousins, and of course cannot fly – they have no way to defend themselves against predators or other birds who may see them as a threat to their resources or territory. Domestic ducks do not live a “free and happy life” when they are abandoned on ponds; they struggle to survive every second that they are out there. We are so grateful to the kind Good Samaritan who looked out for them, fed them, and ultimately contacted us so that they could find a better life 🥹❤️
These friends are in quarantine with our amazing volunteer Shay and will soon be available for adoption! Ideally, we would like to see them go in male/female pairs. If you have room in your flock family for a pair of very lucky, very sweet Pekin friends, please send us a message!
The Barn Restaurant rescue was our largest and most difficult endeavor to date. Not only were the birds grossly suffering from untreated illnesses, parasitic infestations, injuries, and malnutrition, but restaurant staff continually hindered our rescue efforts and did all they could to prevent the birds they were neglecting from being removed from their care. In the end, despite their best efforts, ALL of their domestic ducks were rescued and removed from the property! So many incredible sanctuaries, private adopters, volunteers, transporters, and fosters made this rescue possible, but today we would like to highlight one individual in particular – our dear friend Shay.
Shay has been an invaluable friend to our organization for many years. Not only does she provide a loving forever home to several Good Sprout Rescue alumni, but she volunteers her time helping with transports, fostering, and boots on the ground rescue work. During The Barn Restaurant rescue Shay fostered dozens of survivors, nursed them back to health under the guidance of our veterinarian, and transported them to their forever homes once they were ready! Shay also attended one of the rescues at The Barn Restaurant (despite us receiving multiple threats to our physical safety) and helped us save five lives that day. She is one of the bravest, kindest, most compassionate humans we have ever known, and it is an absolute honor to say that two Barn Restaurant survivors (and Holly, who was rescued from a separate pond in Pickerington) have found their forever home with her!
These three girls join a flock of five other rescued ducks. They have a handsome drake to flirt with, lots of sunny spots to sit in, and of course all the love they could ever hope for. We are so happy for them, and we think they look pretty happy, too! Congratulations sweet girls!
Three beautiful Barn Restaurant survivors found their forever home with the most amazing activist! They join a flock of other rescued ducks, including Huguinho, Zezinho, and Luizinho who were adopted from Good Sprout Rescue early last year, and Alfonso who was adopted from us last Fall! Their mom tells us that they have integrated seamlessly into their new flock and are thriving!
We are beyond blessed to have such wonderful, caring adopters that provide these rescued friends with the most beautiful lives! This adoptive family has chosen to have an all-male flock. There is an unfortunate misconception that male ducks cannot live together without becoming aggressive with one another, and this stigma results in drakes being abandoned or killed at alarming rates. The reality is that without females to squabble over, drakes will coexist peacefully and bond with one another the same way they would bond with female ducks! With so many drakes in need of homes, we are so thankful for adopters and sanctuaries that are willing to have drake-only flocks 🥰 Happy life, sweet boys!
Three more beautiful Barn Restaurant survivors found their forever home with an incredible adoptive family! Six years ago, the Burcham family rescued a drake named Harley who completely changed their lives. Harley taught them the love and joy that ducks can bring, and inspired them to create a sanctuary for drakes! Their setup is beautiful, with lots of room for each boy to run and play and plenty of safe spaces for them to be separated from each other as needed. When someone is sick or injured, they are taken to the veterinarian and given the highest quality care, and each boy is given individualized attention every single day! The life that the drakes who are lucky enough to be rescued by the Burcham family get to live is one in a billion, and so we were so incredibly honored when they offered to adopt several Barn Restaurant survivors! Two survivors, Abner and Arlo, joined their family in January, and three more boys joined their family in March! Asher, Archer, and Amos were rescued from The Barn in late February. They were in critical condition when they arrived, with body scores of only one out of five and were malnourished, weak, and crawling with external parasites. Thankfully lots of high quality nutrition and medical treatment turned things around for them, and the boys gained weight and began to heal 🥹 After their quarantine, the boys left for their forever home and were reunited with their friends Abner and Arlo! We are so grateful to the Burcham family for giving these boys the life they always deserved!
Yesterday 36 Barn Restaurant survivors left on transport for their forever homes! We woke up early and carefully loaded everyone up into carriers, double and triple checking that the right ducks were headed to the right places. These birds have been working so incredibly hard over the last few weeks to heal from their infections, parasitic infestations, and gain some much-needed weight. The vast majority of the ducks were given an absolutely terrifying body condition score of only one out of five when they were rescued, but when we were loading them up and performing their final health checks we were elated to see that everyone had gained a significant amount of weight and they no longer felt skeletal! In addition to packing on muscle, their feather condition had dramatically improved and their once brittle, dull feathers were now full and shiny. It’s amazing the difference that proper nutrition will make! Never again will these sweet ducks have to eat fish food and corn out of gumball machines or moldy bread – it’s only high quality, duck-specific nutrition from here on out, and their bodies are grateful for it!
So many sanctuaries and private adopters have come together to give these birds a new lease on life. Our dear friends at Sweet Peace Farm Sanctuary not only lent us their 15-seater passenger van throughout the entirety of this rescue so we could transport the absolutely massive number of birds from The Barn Restaurant back to the sanctuary as well as our rescue equipment, but they have graciously accepted ten beautiful survivors into their program, including sweet Delia – who we are proud to say has made a full recovery from her starvation-induced thiamine deficiency and is now able to run, play, swim, dabble, and do all the stuff ducks do! The amazing people at A Brighter Day Animal Rescue League also provided invaluable support by allowing us to borrow some of their carriers so we could transport birds not only from the rescue site to the sanctu
