From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

Brenda Barnette, executive director of Tony LaRussa’s Animal
Rescue Foundation in Walnut Creek, California since mid-2003,
resigned suddenly at the end of January 2006 after the death of her
mother. Previously development director for the San Francisco SPCA
and executive director of Pets In Need in Redwood City, California,
Barnette at Tony LaRussa’s doubled program spending, halved
overhead, and reduced the remaining debt owing for a $16 million new
shelter from $6 million to $3 million. Adoptions during her tenure
increased from 456 before the new shelter opened to more than 1,800
in 2005.

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

Monk parakeets are not the only feral parrots in the greater
New York area– just the most abundant.
Mitred conures have been reported at large in New York City
since 1984. A pair of mitred conures in 1988 nested in the eves of a
house in the Rosedale section of Queens, New York. They had four
surviving offspring, and the flock had increased to 30 by 1994,
Marc Morrone of Parrots of the World told Long Island Newsday then.
“People think they are going to freeze to death, somebody
lost them, or that they have gold in their trees,” Morrone said,
advising that the birds should be left alone.
Though still few, the mitred conures now seem to be
permanent residents.
A cockatiel, either feral or an escapee, had the dubious
distinction of being the first New Jersey bird known to be infected
with the mosquito-born West Nile virus–which in North America has
most often hit crows. Caught alive in Middletown, New Jersey, in
July 2000, the cockatiel died later at a Staten Island veterinary
clinic.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2006:

PITTSBURGH, VANCOUVER –The Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium and
the British Columbia-based Raincoast Conserv-ation Foundation have
each taken sizeable habitats away from trophy hunters with recent
land acquisitions.
The Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium announced on January 9 that it
is spending $2.5 million to buy the 615-acre Glen Savage Ranch from
Jerry and Iris Leydig of Fairhope, Pennsylvania.
“The ranch now offers hunting of whitetail deer, elk, red
stags, wild boar, buffalo and black bear. That will end,” wrote
Bill Zlatos of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “Instead, the ranch
will become “an education and conservation center for breeding
elephants and other animals,” Zlatos said.
The Raincoast Conservation Found-ation on December 12, 2005
disclosed that a month earlier it paid $1.35 million Canadian (about
$1 million U.S.) to acquire the guiding and outfitting rights to more
than 20,000 square kilometers of B.C. coastal habitat stretching from
northern Vancouver Island to Princess Royal Island.
“Raincoast, with the six first nations that occupy the
territory, intends to put an immediate end to commercial hunting in
the area,” wrote Nicholas Read of the Vancouver Sun. “No one from
outside B.C. will be permitted to kill animals in the region for
sport. B.C. residents, who operate under different regulations,
may continue to hunt in the area, but members of the first nations
hope to see an end to that early next year.”