July 15-19, 2008 - Kanab, Utah sits squarely between three of the
greatest national parks in the US, and we stopped there, along with
everyone else, for supplies, water and haircuts. We didn't intend to
stay, but as we were leaving town we saw a cute sign that said
"Best Friends Animal Sanctuary" with an arrow pointing down a
winding road that seemed to go deep into a canyon. We couldn't
resist the temptation and took that turn. Four days later we finally
emerged!!
Best Friends is a unique,
extraordinarily well-funded and
beautiful no-kill animal shelter. It
sits on 5 square miles of exotic
red rock canyon and houses
2,000 animals. Their mission is
to find homes for all the animals
that are adoptable, while the rest are allowed to live out their days in the loving care of an
enormous staff. The grounds and landscaping alone are worth seeing, but it was the many tours
of the various animal areas that kept us in that canyon so long.
I am a bird lover, and the parrot garden is a treat. On
summer days, all the parrots are kept in outdoor
enclosures under a canopy of huge shade trees near a
pretty waterfall feature. Visitors are invited to interact
with the parrots, and we spent many happy hours
entertaining and being entertained by these squawking,
talking, feathered comedians. The parrots' nighttime
quarters are indoors, so twice a day during the summer
months the bird caretakers do the Parrot Parade,
carrying each bird between its indoor enclosure and its
outdoor enclosure. On the hottest summer afternoons
the caretakers walk around misting the birds with water
sprayers to help them stay cool. What a life!
An important theme at the sanctuary is
positive interactions between the animals and
people. All the tours are free, and you can
volunteer to stick around and work with your
favorite animals for as little as a few hours or
for as long as you want to stay. There are
cabins and a tiny RV park in the canyon to
accommodate volunteers, and many return for
a week or two every year.
Seppi, a Mollucan cockatoo, likes to walk
along the underside of the roof of his cage,
hanging upside down and talking to you.
Quetzl, a quiet African Grey, was hatched in
1954 but doesn't look a day over five. Tika,
an Umbrella cockatoo, was summering at the
sanctuary while his owner took care of
some personal challenges
He was accustomed to a lot
of attention, so he was
happy to climb into my
arms and get some free
cuddles for a while.
The canyon, officially
"Kanab Canyon" but
affectionately called "Angel
Canyon," is a dramatic
gorge lined with towering
red rock cliffs. Most sanctuary tours require a shuttlebus ride of a few
miles from the reception building out into the rest of the property:
Dogtown Heights, the Cat House, Feathered Friends and the Bunny
House. The drive along the cliff's edges is stunning, and we passed
some of the sanctuary horses who live a charmed life, grazing in peace
while gazing at multi-million dollar views.
Angel's Rest cemetery is along this road as well. Every animal that dies at the
shelter is buried here with a headstone. There are tiny plots for the little birds and
big plots for the large farm animals. Even horses, goats and cows are adopted
out to new homes, whenever possible, and the video shown hourly at the
reception building included snapshots of many happy people who had become
loving owners of goats, sheep and other farm animals.
Most of the animal buildings are built with wings that provide
an indoor shelter with a doorway the animals can pass
through to reach an outdoor shelter. At the cat house, the
outdoor areas include ladders, pillowed perches, and a
lattice-work of planks and shelving near the ceiling. Litter
boxes, food and water dishes are discreetly placed in these
out-of-reach alcoves.
Looking up, all
we could see
was the odd paw
or tail hanging
down from the
lofty hideaways.
It was siesta
time, and all the
cats were happily
dozing.
The bunnies have indoor/outdoor
housing as well, and since bunnies
like to cuddle, many had a stuffed
bunny to snuggle up to. Outside,
one bunny was working very hard
digging a hole, while a few others
were taking a load off under little tent-like
canopies that offered cool shade in a lush
bed of soft green grass.
Dogtown was a busy barking array of buildings. Most of the dogs from Michael Vicks'
dog-fighting operation had just been rescued, and many dogs from Katrina were still in
transition here. We heard amazing stories of animal rescues. One lady had 200
guinea pigs living in her 10' x 10' kitchen, and another wacko had 1,600 rabbits in her
back yard. 1,000 cats were taken from a crazy lady's home in Pahrump, Nevada, and
as I heard the tale from a caretaker I remembered reading about it in the Pahrump
newspaper when we visited eight months earlier. All those cats, rabbits and guinea
pigs had passed through Best Friends to new owners or were still at the sanctuary
hoping for new homes.
Before an animal is adopted out, it must go on an overnight stay to ensure that it is a
well-behaved propsective pet. Visitors can volunteer for these overnight stays, without
obligation, at Parry Lodge in Kanab. If the animal flunks the test, it simply gets a little more loving at the sanctuary, as the
caretakers work to improve its manners.
August 30, 2008 - In Parowan, Utah, at the Iron County State Fair, we attended a
fantastic demonstration and talk by Martin Tyner, founder of Southwest Wildlife
Foundation. His sanctuary focuses on rehabilitating native creatures and returning
them to the wild. Rocky Mountain Power Company has recently donated a huge,
multi-million dollar parcel of land to this sanctuary. Eventually, once money is raised
for land improvements and building construction, this foundation could be for native
wildlife what Best Friends is for domestic animals.
He had three raptors with
him: a Harris Hawk, a
Prairie Falcon and a
Golden Eagle. He is a
Master Falconer, and
although he uses each of these particular birds for education purposes,
he takes them all out hunting on a regular basis to keep their natural
instincts sharp. His job is to flush out rabbits and other prey from the
desert brush so the raptors can catch their meals. They fly free, and
they fly high, happy to have a trained human to take the guesswork out
of finding dinner.
He told us of the highly
aggressive nature of the Prairie Falcon, a slim bird that screamed periodically
throughout his talk. A few years back he had rescued and rehabilitated a particularly
aggressive female that had deserved her nickname "Horrible." He released her into
the desert near Cedar City, and she became a great mom and has raised several
clutches of young since then. But she's oh-so-smart. She recognizes his truck from
their many hunting outings together when she was in his care. Now, when he brings
other raptors into the desert to hunt, she goes out of her way to tease and harrass
him. One time, as he stood with his arm outstretched waiting for his raptor to return
to him, she dived at him from the other direction, knocking him to the ground six feet
away! At the moment of impact, he suddenly understood exactly the kind of blood-
draining terror that rabbits feel when a Prairie Falcon singles them out for a lunch
date.
He invited everyone at the talk to come out to the highest ridge in Cedar City later that afternoon to witness his release of a Golden
Eagle back into the wild. We didn't attend, but he said that whenever he releases a bird he welcomes spectators, so hopefully we
will watch a release another time. He told us that the local Paiute Indians have a special relationship with Golden Eagles. They
believe that if you say a prayer over an eagle feather, the prayer will be carried directly to God. The Golden Eagle being released
that afternoon was going to carry prayers for more than 4,000 local
cancer victims, the "down winders" in southern Utah who contracted
cancer as a direct result of the Cold War era nuclear testing carried out
next door in Nevada.
Unrelated to these two wonderful animal sanctuaries in Utah, Bird
Lovers Only Rescue in Dyer, Indiana has a very funny movie clip
of a lesser sulphur crested cockatoo dancing to the beat of the
Backstreet Boys here. It puts a smile on my face every time I
watch it.