Parrots First was founded  by Rose & Frank Levine, who along with Sue Pastel, Kymberly Snow, Clifford Petersen, Bonnie Jay and a dedicated group of volunteers and foster homes make up Parrots First.

Our History:
Rose and Frank started out in 1996 working on the adoption committee for their local bird club. Like so many bird clubs these days, theirs had been around for a long time and membership was beginning to decline. Most of the members were already in multi-bird flocks and just couldn't make room for one more bird. It is understandable, everyone reaches a point where they just wouldn't be doing the right thing for the new bird and the birds they already have. When the adoption program was phased out of the club they still received occasional telephone calls from people looking to place parrots that they could no longer care for and they were happy to continue helping in whatever way they could. Over the years the amount of calls they received continued to grow until they found ourselves in a position in which they no longer had the resources to care for all of the birds that came into their care. This is why Rose & Frank decided to form a volunteer based group dedicated to helping secondhand parrots.

Sue Pastel has been involved with animals, birds and bird clubs for more years than she cares to mention.  She was President of the West Los Angeles Bird Club for several terms of office as well as the Editor of their newsletter.  Sue currently shares her life with several cockatiels, most of which seemed to find her on their own.  Sue is Co-Director of Parrots First and also Editor of our newsletter.  When Parrots First became incorporated Sue became a Board Member.

Kymberly Snow first met Rose & Frank when inquiring about adoption a bird from them.  She and her husband, Kim, have now adopted two birds (Miles the Catalina macaw and Cindy the African Grey).  Kym became so interested in the work that Rose was doing the she decided to volunteer for Parrots First by providing foster care and by taking on the responsibility of coordinating our Orange County adoption efforts.  When Parrots First became incorporated Kym became a Board Member.

Clifford "Tip" Petersen first became involved with Parrots First when he moved into the same building that Rose & Frank live in.  Tip never had any experience with parrots prior to becoming Rose & Frank's neighbor.  Those initial days were a rocky road.  Tip's windows were surely doomed from all of the slamming.  Frank decided that if he could only make Tip see how interesting the parrots were he'd soon forget about their noise.  It took a while (and more than a few beers shared by the barbeque) but soon Tip was starting to actually LIKE the birds. Next thing Tip knew he was  providing foster care for Rose when she needed a place to quarantine a bird and helping her move cages and transporting birds.  When Parrots First became incorporated Tip became a Board Member.

Bonnie Jay is a professional photographer specializing in parrots as well as an educator.  You can see Bonnie's work in such magazines as Bird Talk and Birds USA as well as on her website.  Bonnie became friendly with Rose & Frank while photographing their birds for an assignment and decided she would like to help out by coordinating our educational efforts.  Bonnie and Rose worked together to create the Parrots First Basic Bird Care Manual.

What we are:
We are first and foremost an avian adoption service. . We exist solely to help unwanted or found parrots and through educational classes and seminars we hope to dispel many of the myths and misconceptions that are prevalent today.  We are also a parrot "rescue" in that we will do everything legally possible to remove a parrot from a harmful situation but in all honesty this is something that only happens very occasionally.  Mostly we are here to help people who can no longer keep their bird for one reason or another.

Mission Statement
Educating people on the proper care of parrots and parrot-like birds, their specific physical and psychological needs, rescuing companion parrots from harmful or unwanted situations and rehabilitating, when necessary, unwanted, found, or injured naturalized (free-flying) parrots; and offering these birds to qualified homes for adoption is the goal of Parrots First.

A Message from Rose Levine
The first call I received as a new member of the bird club's adoption committee was quite a shock. What an emotional ordeal both for the humans and the bird. Being newly involved in the bird world, I had no idea that there even were birds that needed homes. I quickly found out how many different reasons there could be for a parrot to need help. I also discovered that there were insufficient numbers of people working to provide that help.

That was in 1996. Now, I know that there is a huge surplus of unwanted parrots. Our goal at Parrots First is to provide each one of these intelligent and highly sensitive creatures who come into our care with the chance for the best life possible under the circumstances. We will accomplish this through finding loving qualified homes to adopt our babies, and when needed by working with existing sanctuaries.

I believe that as more and more people who share their lives happily with parrots become aware of the problems we have created for them, the more they will become committed to bringing about solutions.

We are proud to be members of  the Avian Welfare Coalition and the Avian Rescue Network .

These are our principles*:

• We do not breed or place birds with people who breed. We do not sell, trade, or use birds in our care for commerce or profit.
• We promote responsible guardianship of adoptable homeless birds.
• We promote education on all issues of avian welfare.
• We oppose the sale of unweaned baby birds and production breeding methods.
• We oppose the mass-marketing and selling of birds through pet store chains, bird marts, and internet venues.
• We maintain that all captive breeding contributes to the problem of homeless captive birds and, with very few exceptions, does not contribute to the viable preservation of the species.
• We do not condone, endorse, or promote the breeding of birds for the pet trade as long as there are unwanted birds in need of homes.
• We support and encourage responsible legislation protecting the rights, health, and safety of birds living in captivity.
• We are strongly opposed to legal/illegal exportation/importation and encourage all countries to adopt legislation and enforcement policies preventing wild birds from entering the pet trade.

*These principles were developed and adopted at the Avian Welfare Round Table by the Avian Welfare Coalition, Phoenix, AZ, June 8–10, 2001:

As members of the Avian Welfare Coalition, these are our Goals:

• To generate public awareness of the causes and conditions contributing to the growing crisis of abused and abandoned captive birds worldwide.
• .To collaborate with animal advocacy organizations to promote social and legislative changes to expand the public's perception and improve the quality of life for birds living in captivity.
• To facilitate the rescue, sanctuary, and re-homing of displaced captive birds.
• To support the enforcement of existing anti-cruelty laws and to advocate legislation that will strengthen legal protection for captive birds.
• To coordinate action to oppose egregious and unethical practices in the pet trade.
• To serve as an educational resource and information center for the media and animal welfare community through the Avian Welfare Resource Center and through our bird care classes and seminars.