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Dear friends,
Our
Alien
Duck X-Ray has become quite
the pop culture phenomenon. Who
Knew? When we discovered
this little alien face in the x-ray
we all got a big kick out of it
because it was so well defined
and obvious. We thought it
was a unique one of a kind item
so we decided to give it a try
on
eBay to see if there was anyone
that would want to purchase it. Our
reasoning was that if someone would
buy the cheese toast with a image
of the Madonna on it then maybe
someone would want and alien in
a duck x-ray. We had no idea
that it would become the lead on
the news worldwide. We believe
that auctioning the x-ray on eBay
is a creative and “out of
the box” method in which
to raise money for IBRRC and we
are proud of that.
As you have probably
realized by now, IBRRC is a non-profit
organization and the wild animals
that come to us in need of care
do not carry credit cards or have
owners that pay for them. Our
ongoing challenge is to generate
enough interest and income to fund
the rehabilitation of the 4,000
or so birds that we care for every
year in our two rehabilitation
centers in California. It
has been our privilege to care
for literally tens of thousands
of birds over the last 35 years
but the bottom line is that it
requires ongoing financial support
to do this work.
Over
60% of the birds we receive are
casualties of human generated pollution,
urban sprawl or intentional acts
of cruelty. We
firmly believe that it everyone’s responsibility
to care for these animals. Nonetheless,
getting people to see the problem
and support our efforts has not
always been easy to achieve. I
loved the comment from the person
who visited the eBay auction and
said, “I challenge everyone
reading this to donate at least
$10 to the IBRRC.” If
everyone gave only $10 a year we
could do the job very well and
help countless animals and make
an even greater contribution to
the world and the environment. So,
thank you to that person for recognizing
an easy solution to this problem.
We are assuming that
most people either do not want
or cannot afford the original Alien
in a Duck x-ray so we created a “pop
up” menu on this web site
to guide you to ways that you can
provide ongoing support to IBRRC. This
is an opportunity to contribute
to the environment in a meaningful
and tangible way. By supporting
the rehabilitation of wild animals
in our clinics you don’t
just give money with a promise
that it will be used correctly. You
get to see the results of your
contribution when our patients
are released back into the wild
and if you become a Pelican Partner
you can actually visit one of our
centers and go with us to release
your bird to the wild.
If you are interested
in volunteering at one of our centers
then please contact us at the numbers
on this web site. If you
are not in the areas where are
centers are located you can locate
other worthwhile wildlife rehabilitation
organizations to support through
these two web sites. The
National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association, www.nwrawildlife.org
or the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council,
www.iwrc-online.org.
Again, Thank you for
your interest in IBRRC. As
you can see through our web site, we have a long history
of very dramatic oil spills and dynamic work in the
field of wildlife rehabilitation. It is a nice
change of pace for us to do “tongue in cheek” interviews
about aliens in ducks when we are usually talking about
wildlife in crisis. I hope you are having as
much fun as we are with it.
Thanks for visiting us.
Jay Holcomb
Executive Director
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