How it all began….

In 2017, my then 12 year old daughter Anna had being incessantly begging for pigeons for a year. Being a working farm we have never been short of pigeons. Our large barns and corn fields provide a perfect pigeon paradise. But one little soul found life a bit tough - a scrawny, feral wasn’t coping with the world and was soon found and adopted by Anna. He was named Bramble and took up residence in her bedroom for the remainder of his short but much loved life. He left a large hole in her heart when he died. For a whole year from that point on, Anna had begged for pigeons. I finally (and against my better judgement) relented and allowed her to rehome a few that had fallen on hard times. A few ended up as 10 that came from a pigeon rescue centre. We now needed somewhere to house them. We needed an aviary.

Alan obligingly built a wooden aviary and large outdoor area to hold our 10 pigeons. All was well and peace descended. That was until Anna decided she wanted to volunteer in a pet shop. There wasn’t a chance on Earth I was going to let her pass through their doors without checking whether they had livestock - specifically birds. At 5pm one evening, I entered through their doors and my heart sank. There were shelves upon shelves of birds. They were housed in small cages mostly in flocks - canaries, finches, budgerigars, noisy, flighty and stressed. One cage caught my eye. It housed a lone yellow Kakariki that endlessly circled a loop in his tiny, empty prison. I felt sick and left.

That night I couldn’t settle, I couldn’t clear my mind of that pitiful image. A kakariki is a native parrot of New Zealand, busy, active, inquisitive, intelligent with a very long lifespan - 15 years. I’d struggle to survive 15 minutes incarcerated like that. The cage was no bigger than an A3 sheet of paper.

There was only one option that I could take. At 9am the following morning, I was on the doorstep of the pet shop, cash in hand waiting for it to open. That little fellow was coming home with me.

And so started a parrot sanctuary.

What next?

One little kakariki soon grew into many multiples of parrots. There is SO much need. So many of these charismatic, super intelligent, beautiful little souls are living in horrific situations through no fault of their own. There are just so many, just so much suffering. I know I can’t save them all, but I can make a start. Education is the key to change.

And a very large, purpose built, bespoke parrot aviary.


“AS ONE PERSON I CANNOT CHANGE THE WORLD, BUT I CAN CHANGE THE WORLD OF ONE PERSON (PARROT).” (PAUL SHANE SPEAR)