Ghassan Abboud, a Chicago dentist who owns a bird farm in West Palm Beach, is an acquaintance of the sanctuary owners. Some whistled and spoke, including several with mischievous vocabularies. The birds - from macaws to cockatoos and rare specimens of king parrots (only two dozen pairs are kept in the United States) - squawked and flapped their wings and their handlers put them in cages. The crew of volunteers was not about to let that happen.įor several hours Tuesday, the volunteers stuck nets and their bare hands into cages to pen the birds in cages. So they're going through their own suffering from the hurricane," Stern said, "and having to rebuild their lives. "Will and Laura, who own the sanctuary, their hearts and souls are in the birds. "It's been nuts," said James Judge, who owns the boat "Slice of Life," which led the small flotilla of rescue boats. RELATED: Fearing death, praying for a miracle: Sanibel Island woman survives Ian's historic wrath "Our animal numbers are about to be blown out of the water by 100 cages of parrots," Stern said, before embarking on the rescue mission. While the focus of many search and rescue missions has been on human life, there have also been pet rescues.īryan Stern, the founder and leader of Project Dynamo, which assembled four boats for the mission, said his team has rescued at least six dogs, three cats and, before Tuesday's massive rescue, three birds. Many of the birds were rescued from homes that could no longer care for them. So the kind of help we've gotten has been invaluable." "To have every bird safe is a huge undertaking," Peratino said. We had four feet of water in the house, damned-near drowned," Peratino said, before succumbing to tears. "You don't know what we've been through here. In the hours before the storm, the sanctuary owners herded their flock of birds and packed them into their home to shield them from the ferocity of the elements. RELATED: Flooding still a major problem in Florida one week after Hurricane Ian Wind-driven rains and ocean surges brought dangerous flooding. Hurricane Ian battered Southwest Florida a week ago with 150 mph gusts, making some roads impassable and islands inaccessible. The birds have been relying on food donated by wildlife officials since Hurricane Ian hit, but the supply of fruit, peanuts and other edibles would soon be hard to come by because of the downed bridge and the scarcity of gasoline on the island. "Malama" is the Hawaiian word for protect, "manu" means bird. Marc Morgenstern, 107th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment. Footage taken from a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter shows the state of Fort Myers on Saturday, Oct.
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