Rotary Park Bird Sanctuary looking for help

Details

Published on Thursday, October 8, 2015

By Kira Paterson

The Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

Jake Birch, the caretaker at the Rotary Park Bird Sanctuary in Neepawa, is looking to make a few additions to the park’s personnel. 

He is hoping to find another volunteer to help take care of the animals residing there. Someone is needed to help with feeding and watering the animals as well as occasionally cleaning out the shed. He said it would only take about half an hour a day. Birch is looking for someone with some knowledge of taking care of animals, but he would be willing to teach someone new if they weren’t experienced. There are only a couple volunteers working at the park, so he wants to find someone else for when they can’t be there. 

By now, it is widely known that Chopper, the emu from the bird sanctuary, died recently. Birch said that from what he was told, horses that had been at the park scared Chopper and got him worked up. He speculated that Chopper suffered from a heart attack and died overnight. 

Birch is on the lookout for two more emus to add to the sanctuary’s inhabitants. He has been in touch with someone from Alberta, but as of now, there are no emus available from there because they had few hatch this year. 

Financial contributions to the bird sanctuary can be made by going to the Beautiful Plains Credit Union and donating money to the Town of Neepawa Bird Sanctuary; there is also a donation box at the park itself where you can leave donations. The money given is used to buy feed and new birds and put towards general maintenance of the sanctuary. 

If anyone would like to volunteer at the park or has any idea where the sanctuary could get emus, Birch encourages them to call him. He can be reached at home by calling 204-476-3053 or on his cell at 204-476-6208.