THE LILY SANCTUARY, founded by Venette and Dan Hill, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) parrot rescue whose sole purpose is to provide quality care and love for homeless and "special needs" parrots.WHAT WE DO At the THE LILY SANCTUARY we are dedicated to providing each animal with the finest care possible, which includes unconditional love and affection. Each parrot has its own oversized indoor cage with plenty of toys. We also have numerous outdoor aviaries, stands, and bird trees and—weather permitting—everyone gets daily outdoor time and frequent showers. Their diets meet and/or exceed all avian veterinary recommendations; fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, complete-nutrition pellets, a variety of nuts and a special high-grade seed mixture.
WHO WE ARE
Sometimes even we wonder if we’ve lost our minds putting the parrots before nearly everything else. We’re talking about a big investment in cages that require daily cleaning, a hefty, ongoing supply of food, toys and accessories, grooming, medicine, vet trips . . . But we do it because we love the birds and this seems to be why we’re here on Earth. We do it because we're both life-long animal lovers who got bitten with Parrot Fever. We came together with separate backgrounds of experience with an eclectic array of pets: horses, pigs, goats, falcons, hawks, monkeys, mountain lions, squirrels, guinea pigs, raccoons, ducks, parakeets and of course dogs and cats. No parrots. In 1990 we bought a baby Umbrella Cockatoo whom we named Lily. Lily was still being hand-fed formula, so we visited her often at the store. One day the shop owner called us with unexpected and terrifying news: Lily had been diagnosed with a fatal disease called Avian Beak and Feather, also referred to as Bird AIDS. The first test was positive, a second test would be back in 5 days and if it confirmed the diagnosis, she would be put down. Meantime, she was in isolation in a back room of the store. We were utterly devastated. The owner offered us a “replacementâ€, but we’d already sold our hearts to Lily. We began our extensive, ongoing education right then with a crash course in hand-feeding and brought Lily home to her new cage. We loved her, spoiled her, prayed for her, never left her side. The second test came back positive, and the vet came to our house. When he looked at Lily, he had the same inexplicable feeling that we did—she was special—.He agreed not to put her down. Instead, he brought us a supply of Interferon which we gave to her orally twice a day. Lily went through some traumatic ordeals that easily could have caused her immune system to crash, but it didn’t. She stayed on Interferon for 3 years, until she didn’t need it anymore. She has since tested negative twice for the disease. As a testimony to her perseverance, Lily now visits Senior Citizen homes and day-care facilities for specially challenged adults and children. The response to this beautiful white ball of feathers is a hearty smile from one who doesn’t usually smile; utterances of joy from those who don’t speak; and, physical movement from those who have long since lost the ability to move about unassisted. We purchased 2 more parrots, a one-year-old Triton Cockatoo who had been abused, and an African Grey baby. Our purchases ended when we got our first rescue. An active volunteer with an AIDS organization, I worked for 5 years with HIV+ people and their pets. With the help of PAWS/LA and local pet stores and vets, my contribution was filling the needs of the pets as well as the clients. One of our HIV clients had to move to the South to care for his mother and asked us to look after his Cherry-Head Conure. Unfortunately both my friend and his mother died, so “Chopsey†became our first official rescue. From that point on, we became an ever-multiplying, unofficial parrot rescue, funded 100% with our own personal funds, and outgrowing our space rapidly. Relocating to Orange County, California, gave us more room—and more birds, as well as several ducks, two dogs, a cat and two bunnies—all rescues, of course. ************************************************************
*** THE BIRTH OF THE SANCTUARY THE LILY SANCTUARY: founded in 2003 to honor Lily and her 13th birthday and, obviously, as a vehicle to help us fund our continuing work. We network with other rescue groups and bird societies and help each other wherever possible. But for money—the only thing that will ensure our survival—we have to go out of the box and seek donations from concerned, compassionate people like YOU. Today our resident parrot count is 42. Tomorrow, who knows? We were fortunate in placing several parrots in exceptional homes in 2002. That was also the first year we accepted donations and got our first volunteer. In 2005 and beyond there’s no question more parrots will need our help. With your help, we can continue doing what we do—and love.
