My name is Roberta Barr and I run the Nebraska Parrot Rescue in Bellevue, NE. Last week most of you might have heard about an elderly lady in Bridgeport, Nebraska who passed away. She had 23 birds in her home at the time of her passing. Her Son Tommy called me and asked if we could come and get his mothers birds. He wasn’t a bird person and doesn’t like birds but still wanted NOTHING to happen to the birds. His mother passed on Tuesday night and he called us very early Wednesday morning.

After talking to him for a few minutes, he informed us that if we could not come and get the birds that the Sheriff would come Tuesday morning at 7AM to destroy the birds, due to having no place to keep the birds in the county. I must tell everyone that is has nothing to do with people up there in Western Nebraska not liking birds, it is just that they have no humane societies up there and not many people are able to take in so many birds at one time.

We decided that there was no choice; we have to go after the birds. We left Bellevue, Nebraska Monday morning at 4 AM and traveled west on Interstate 80 about 440 miles to Bridgeport, NE We met Tommy at his mothers home. We got there about 11AM. As we pulled up to the home to wait for the son, what we noticed was a home that looked like it hadn’t been taken care of and Oxygen signs on the door. We looked in the windows and notices many birds in the living room. A quick count of cages showed us that there were 8 cages in the living room alone. All windows were closed and no air conditioning was on, bird seed everywhere on the floor, along with piles of poop.

Then we looked in to another window, which was a small bed room, and we saw 5 cages in there. Once the owners son, had gotten there we went in to count how many birds we would be taking home. We counted 17 live birds we would have to get into carriers. Mind you we were originally going after 23 birds. There were birds in the bath room, a small bedroom in the back of the home, along with birds in the kitchen and living room of the Mobil home.

My Good friend Lisa Williams from Des Moines, IA came alone on this journey with me and she and I worked for 3 hours getting birds into carriers and cages into the Uhaul. It was about 93 degrees in Bridgeport on Monday, and not breeze that I can remember.

Once we had everyone in the Blazer and all the cages in the U haul we started our journey back towards Bellevue to the Rescue. We stopped several times to make sure everyone was doing well. Everyone had food and water on the long drive back here to the rescue but we were concern about one Senegal who, when we found him in a cage in a bathroom, didn’t look well. He is at the vet as we speak. We kept him up front with us the whole drive home. He was a breeder and he had no name so we called him Bart, just in case something did happen to him we wanted to be able to call him by name. SO we named him. Bart BTW is at the vet and he has a sinus infection due to the conditions of the home and his cage no being cleaned.

We got back to the Rescue about 2:30 AM Tuesday morning. We took everyone out of the Blazer and put them into my garage where I had staged cages the day before. We put all the birds in cages with fresh food and water. All the birds were malnourished and very dirty.

Tuesday morning we took several birds to Mike Bosilevac D.V.M. at Best Care Animal Hospital in Omaha, NE.

We took the Uhaul to the car wash where we power washed all the cages and things we brought back from Bridgeport. Everyone has to understand that in most of the cages were No toys and only one perch per cage. I am sure the family did the best they could to provide for these birds but there were just too many birds for one elderly person to handle, on her own, with her health conditions.

NOW for the GOOD NEWS...

It seems like the birds are adjusting very nicely. There are a few feather pluckers and all are under weight but nothing that with a little time and love won’t cure. These birds will not be put up for adoption for 30 days. We quarantine everyone. Then it will be on case by case bases. Depending on how each bird’s personality and health is they will go up for adoption about the middle to end of August.

We have had a huge in flux of applications in the last week after the local paper "Omaha World Herald" ran a story on the Orphan birds. We currently have 28 birds up for adoption already. We are hoping to have everyone placed quickly. We have people who want to volunteer to help clean cages and make us birdie bread; help us with socialization birds and anything else I need people to do. We are however still in need of toys, perches, food, and cash donations for vet bills.

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK EVERYONE WHO… Helped us by sending money for gas to get the birds, and helped pay for the Uhaul. For the people who donated their carriers, their time and the prayers to us when we HONESTLY needed the support. I would like to thank everyone who has offered to Adopt and/or Foster birds for us. I would like to thank the monitors of most of the bird groups I have contacted and/or belong to for checking references and finding out that this was not a fake plea for help. Dr. Bosilevac who give amazing vet care when we need it, Iowa Parrot Rescue for the wonderful guidance when needed, The Omaha World Herald, Sue T. who did the human interest story for us AND Petland in Omaha for all the bird food, toys and bedding they donated. Without this support from the community and wonderful people ONLINE we could not have been able to undertake such a task.

THANK YOU……… THANK YOU………….. THANK YOU

PLEASE CROSS POST………….I will try to send out updates once a week or so to keep everyone informed. Some of the photos that we took are disturbing so I have chosen not to mass mail them out. I will post photos of the birds from Bridgeport on our website www.nebraskaparrotrescue.org in the next few days. My main concerns right now is to get everyone checked out then work on the web site. I hope everyone understands. If anyone has any questions please email me at roberta@nebraskaparrotrescue.org

Nebraska Parrot Rescue
P.O. Box 1609
Bellevue, NE 68005-1609

GOD BLESS EVERYONE------------Roberta Barr—Nebraska Parrot Rescue