Who we are

Coral

Coral is a 4 year old parakeet who was surrendered to us in 2024. She is a permanent resident at SAAS.

Why do We Need a Parrot Rescue in South Lake Tahoe?

SAAS is the only parrot rescue located in the Tahoe Basin and was founded out of a necessity to support local bird owners with the increase of the captive bird trade in South Lake Tahoe and surrounding cities, and lack of education and resources for parrots.

the facts:

Supply & Demand:

• Local pet stores in South Lake Tahoe keep exotic birds stocked at all times which makes them an easily accessible, impulse purchase.

• Many people in Lake Tahoe purchase birds from many of the surrounding towns and bring them back to Lake Tahoe.

• When speaking to a pet store that sells birds in a neighboring city (not in South Lake Tahoe), the GM let us know that it was quite common for their birds to die while at the store, and that they actually kept a specific freezer for the dead birds. Unfortunately, many of the local bird owners we interviewed purchased their birds from this exact pet store.

  Lack of Veterinary Care:

• There are NO avian vets in South Lake Tahoe, the closest being nearly an hour drive. This is a barrier for most bird owners.

• Birds are extremely susceptible to illness and are great at hiding their illness. Birds hide illness as a survival instinct.

• Birds in captivity generally live longer than in the wild. However, improper care and lack of medical attention leads to many captive parrots have a much shorter lifespan than their wild counterparts.

  Lack of Resources & Education:

• There is no place in South Lake Tahoe to purchase a proper cage or food for birds, not even at the pet stores that sell these exotic birds.

• Many of the commercial bird toys sold at pet stores are extremely dangerous for birds. Toys are one of the most common reasons birds end up under emergency veterinary care.

• When conducting our initial start up, we interviewed dozens of bird owners who all stated that none of them have ever taken their bird to see a vet, and didn’t know they needed to.

• During the same interview, 96% of participants stated that their birds are on an all seed diet and they did not know that a seeded diet is dangerous for birds.

“Paint the flying spirit of the bird, rather than its feathers.”

-Robert Henri

Shelby

Founder and CEO of Sierra Avian Advocacy & Services

My love for birds started when I brought home my first bird, Cannon. Cannon was only one month old when I found him at the pet store, sick. He had missing tail feathers, and appeared stressed. At the time, I did not know anything about birds but I knew something was wrong.

I brought Cannon home and was determined to give him a life worth living after the wrong he had endured. I had scheduled his veterinary appointment the next business day which was scheduled for a week later. It took four hours to schedule this appointment, as Avian vets are difficult to find. I spoke with the Veterinarian on the phone who gave me a list of all the possibilities she thought could be wrong with Cannon, all of which were pretty bad and quite common.

I spent the most wonderful week of my life (and I like to believe the most wonderful week of Cannons life), bonding, playing and cuddling. Unfortunately, Cannon passed away the night before his appointment and absolutely broke my world as I thought we could get past this.

It was in this moment that I realized I had to do something to change the course of parrot care and advocate for the well-being of these beautiful, exotic creatures. In honor of Cannon, I started Sierra Avian Advocacy & Services to provide all the resources to others, that I wish I had for Cannon.

Cannon

Fly high baby bird.

Cannon came to work with me so he wasn’t left home alone while he was sick.

Cannons favorite snuggle up sweater.