About
LuAnn Apple, founder of M.A.R.S., with her bird Parker
Melbourne Avian Rescue Sanctuary (M.A.R.S.) was formed completely out of love for exotic parrots by Melbourne Beach long time resident LuAnn Apple. There was a tremendous need for a place to exist on Florida’s space coast. A place to meet these needs of placing, rehabilitating, and providing a home for unwanted exotic birds to flourish in a healthy tropical setting. We officially came into being on February 28, 2008. We received our much awaited I.R.S. letter of exemption in September of that same year.
Birds in the aviary of M.A.R.S.
Our mission is a simple one. Strive to teach people what went wrong with their choice of an exotic bird, and possibly what they can do differently to make it right. We have learned through experience that ones first choice of exotic isn’t always the right one for their situation, and throw in the personality differences between exotics within the same species, and you possibly have a recipe for failure.
It is our highest priority to match the right individual or family to an exotic bird that will bring years of joy to both.
The all volunteer staff of M.A.R.S. strives on a daily basis to concentrate on the well being of each and every exotic that is in our care. We allow them freedom to fly, to sit in trees, to feel what it’s like to get a bath from real rain. We promote interactions between members of different species, and as you can imagine this will make for some great stories to write.
The spacious aviary of M.A.R.S
We are hoping that you can find it in within your means to help us continue with the work we do here at M.A.R.S. It is our heartfelt wish that through our pictures and stories you will see the need for help and support both monetarily, and through sharing your stories with the interactive features on our website (i.e. your comments in our blog, your thoughts and inquiries sent via our contact form). We will try on a weekly basis to answer all questions on bird behaviors and human behaviors, related to exotics of course.
We hope that the web presence of M.A.R.S. will be visited by all who have a love for these amazing creatures we now know are so very complicated, and so many times highly misunderstood. Their means of communicating with humans sometimes so lost in their translations.
So once again we ask you to come fly with us, share our joys and sometimes our failures. It is always a learning process, if we just choose to learn.
LuAnn Apple
P.S. Anyone, who makes the decision to start-up an animal rescue organization, regardless of their animal of choice, feels compelled to do so from some deep place within. Well I can honestly now say, from years of experience with exotic parrots, “Keep it buried deep down in that inner place, and move on.” Move on quickly to some other calling, because your life is forever about to change. The word life takes on a completely different meaning, because it is no longer yours to do with as you please. Having said all the above, obviously I didn’t heed my own advice, and what finally came to be created was M.A.R.S.
