Marie-Élisabeth Gagnon
Founder and Director
Parrot Sanctuary Canada
Marie-Élisabeth Gagnon is the Founder and Director of Parrot Sanctuary Canada, Canada’s only parrot rescue, education centre, and sanctuary operated by a certified parrot behaviour consultant (CPBC) and Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner (KPA CTP). She specializes in the rehabilitation of parrots experiencing behavioural and psychological trauma resulting from neglect, chronic stress, and poor captive environments.
Parrots are intelligent wild animals whose cognitive needs evolved for life in complex natural ecosystems. In rehabilitation work, she sees the consequences when those needs cannot be met in captivity, including feather destruction, self-injury, and psychological distress.
Her work integrates behavioural science, force-free training, education, and advocacy to improve outcomes for parrots in human care. With over twenty years of experience, she applies evidence-based, welfare-centered methods that prioritize an understanding of these complex animals while providing animals with agency, choice, and control within the constraints of captivity.
Session: Beyond Ownership: Behavioural Harm, Rehabilitation, and the Regulation of Exotic Companion Animals in Canada
