Rising Stars: Meet GaiRen Tembreull

Today we’d like to introduce you to GaiRen Tembreull.  

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Albatross Aviary is a local Michigan 501C3 bird rescue and sanctuary that focuses on the long-term care and housing of troubled and unwanted birds. It was established in 2015 by Gairen Tembreull as a way to address the crisis of unwanted companion birds. Most of the birds that find their way through the albatross doors come in from places of neglect and abuse that often lead to behavioral issues that make placing them in homes especially difficult and all too often impossible without an experienced avian caretaker without seeing regression in behavior, thus creating a cycle of birds going in and out of rescues accumulating a myriad of negative personality traits, behavioral issues such as aggression, self-mutilation, and antisocial behaviors, resembling what one might see in the American foster system and other unstable environments with children. Gairen developed Albatross aviary to use basic child developmental principals and childhood trauma to rehabilitate troubled birds combined with the fundamental understanding of the 5 domains of captive care established in 2015, to provide a lifelong care facility for those that could not find better homes and help establish a better understanding of the relationship we have with birds and better standardize their care. 

Up until 2022, Gairen had been running the aviary alone as the only full-time care take for up to 40 resident birds at a time while personally funding the operation as a freelance artist. Albatross Aviary, Like every other rescue and shelter, was hit hard during the covid 19 pandemic and were forced to find a new location, and after almost 2 years of looking and traveling the country trying to find a job as an avian specialist at other rescues, it was not looking promising that Gairen was going to find a safe place where Albatross aviary could land, to continue the commitment to the birds in its care. But in November of 2021, albatross aviary moved to grand rapids and started rebuilding in a little worn-out building and has been growing ever since and slowly building a community of dedicated support and volunteers. Not out of the woods, Albatross Aviary is in need of donations and volunteer help as we still struggle to pay the bills and facility costs. We really appreciate the opportunity to be seen and are accepting donations and volunteer applications at our website. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The struggle and burdens that come with rescue and rehabilitating animals is pretty well known, now ever, especially after covid 19, but most people do not know that the there is a real crisis of unwanted parrots and companion birds. With birds being the 3rd most popular pet, unfortunately, they are the number one most rehomed animal due to their long-life expectancies and special care needs, that if not met the bird becomes ill or aggressive, often both. Unfortunately placing birds into proper homes can be tricky, and all too often the burden is placed on inexperienced adopters who are lead to believe that their companion is going to be much like a puppy with common rescue policies with same-day adoption. Unfortunately, this often leads to birds only staying in home on an average of 2-4 years with a lifespan of up to 75 years can create an issue of a revolving door policy where birds keep returning to shelters and rescues for reoccurring behavioral issues to help with this Albatross Aviary does not adopt out to the public directly and requires a training and volunteer period before someone is even eligible for adoption, this means that a lot of our residents will be in our care for extended periods of time under quality-of-life upgrades as we work to rehabilitate, but many will be lifelong residents. 

This is just another ethical obstacle where most rescues make money through adoption fees; we do not believe in the buying and selling of lives. this makes funding very difficult 

Albatross aviary is here to help educate and help protect all species of bird. Like many, we are dealing with the struggles that come from an ever more hostel natural world for birds with climate disaster and the human effects on the natural echo system. 

Wow this all sounds like a lot of work and an incredibly uphill battle, why would one man take this on like this!!?? 

Gairen Tembreull has been building this from the ground up for ten years after a tragic motorcycle accident changed his life forever; Gairen Tembreull went from being a teacher at the local college in the medical illustration department who had an African grey to dedicating his life to the rescue and rehabilitation of abused, abandoned, and neglected birds after he shattered his hips and had severe TBI putting him bedridden for 8 months and transitioning from a wheelchair walking again as the dr. predicted he would not be able to walk without the assistance of a cane ever again. Owning a bird he had to consider rehoming, but unfortunately, this only lead him to discover the real crisis of unwanted birds and took it upon himself to help, and using the dedicated drive to care for these birds like him that couldn’t find a safe place for their special needs Gairen went from being scared and homeless to operating and running a growing solution to a real problem. 

he will be teaching an ornithology class at the Mejier Fredric Gardens in May and is continuing to build, hopefully, through these efforts, he will be able to create a sustainable facility through shelter and educational grants as he works on helping set a standard of care for these miss-understood animals in need 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Gairen Tembreull started out as an artist and taught medical animation at Kendall and Ferris State. With his passion for and learning this experience, he is hoping to take the thing that he is most proud of, the birds in his care, and create educational programs in the future based on the years of research in trauma recovery in the these birds. The educational programs will be based around educating people on the big role that birds play in our lives. 

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
both my like and dislike is that it is a big city with a small-town vibe 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.albatrossaviary.com
• Instagram: Albatross_Aviary
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/AlbatrossAviary

Image Credits
Gairen Tembreull
John Nowak