- WHO WE ARE -

 

A diverse group of passionate parrot rescuers and rehabilitators combined dozens of years of hands on experience in the care of exotic birds and officially founded Ruffled Feathers Sanctuary as a nonprofit in 2015 to provide what we consider to be an essential and much needed service to make the lives of these captive birds as safe and happy as they can be.

From Hanover, Pennsylvania all the way down to Crescent City, Florida, our enthusiastic and dedicated group of volunteers allow us to do what we do.

- WHAT WE DO -

 
We are dedicated first and foremost to the welfare of exotic pet birds.
PRIMARILY, we operate a bird sanctuary and rescue by offering refuge and safety for at-risk parrots and other exotic birds suffering “changed circumstances” and in immediate need of relocation. Our rapid response team is in many ways a kind of first responder, there to help parrots and their owners in times of emergency.

RFS assures that each bird is, and remains, capable of being held by a human being and does not revert to a wild state. We rehabilitate each bird by providing it a safe, long-term place where it becomes well-adjusted and capable of “stepping up” to the daily challenges of a very long life.

RFS is committed to each bird individually and to respecting its unique personality and intelligence. We achieve this through daily routines of social interaction between each bird and trained RFS personnel and volunteers.
 
Secondarily we also offer our services in public outreach and education, far too few fully comprehend the behaviors and needs of parrots in captivity. We offer information on how to care for them as well as how to plan for when, as is often the case, a bird can outlive their owner. We believe educating owners and non-owners alike is a critical step to reducing the suffering of birds nationwide.
 
Of paramount importance to RFS is the long-term welfare and, yes, happiness of each and every bird in captivity. No one else, to our knowledge, has as a stated goal to reduce the suffering and misery of parrots and other exotic birds who, because of their long lives, face often multiple traumas and crises when current caretakers can no longer care for them. By empowering owners to take charge of succession planning, owners and their beloved companions are equally winners.

- WHY WE'RE NECESSARY -

 
Ruffled Feathers is one of a very limited few organizations where a bird in need can be almost immediately surrendered or picked-up and placed in quarantine in foster care to be evaluated by an avian vet. An average animal shelter is often completely unprepared or unequipped to take in an exotic bird.
We never put a bird on a waiting list.
Our Rapid Response team has saved many a bird from euthanasia or a rapidly deteriorating existence.
 
Further, to avoid the total breakdown of the bird/human bond, RFS has initiated a unique process to educate bird owners and others interested in parrots and other exotic birds to appreciate the importance of succession planning for all captive birds. Succession Planning provides a mechanism that is legally enforceable to transition companion birds in specifically identified circumstances immediately to a responsible successor caretaker when the original owner has died or is otherwise unable to meet the daily needs of his/her bird.
 
RFS offers members of the public, free of charge, information and support, as well as the necessary documents and assistance in completing them, to achieve this objective of non-disruptive transition from an original caretaker to a successor. Our objective is to minimize, if not eradicate, the suffering of these companion birds when predictable “changed circumstances” inevitably occur that sever their normal bird/human bond.

To be in the best position to meet these unknown future challenges, each bird must not lose its ability to interact with humans on whom it depends for its continued existence. We are convinced that a bird’s ability to “step up” is the key to its long term emotional and physical well-being because in captivity parrots and other exotic birds only thrive when they socially interact with humans. By dulling or even negating their innate need to be free, man has substituted for their need to be free a new need for relationship with humans.

Without social human interaction, a caged bird is maladjusted, mean, withdrawn, often depressed and always miserable. It is not our purpose to replace a mean, unhappy caged bird with a mean, unhappy sanctuary one; that is simply a change of geography. What is pivotal to a bird’s long term well-being is meeting the challenge to step up and strengthen that bird’s capability for human bonding and social interaction.