Raising money to bring pet with us

We are trying to raise money to bring our pet parrot with us to East Sussex from Florida April 2006
http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=fruitbatz
...his picture, we were told when all is said and done it would cost 1000. after fees, certificates, special CITES permits from both countries, vet visits, air ticket. quarenteen will be 35 days in our home DEFRA has told us. We have no belongings to sell as we rent a furnished place.
ideas? I cant leave him alone in the states with strangers after having him all of these years.
anyone been in this situation?  :\\\'(

aw sorry! do you have any friends or family that plan on giving you Christmas presents this year? perhaps you can make your plea for cash... or itemize each expense and have them pick what to sponsor i.e., vet visit, airfare, permits etc. to make it "fun" that they know they had a particular part in the move.

I wish you the very very best of luck. I'm sure you can come up with something to do to raise the money. Maybe someone web-savvy could make a website for you that would accept donations?

I'm thinking of moving to the UK as well but have six little parrots of my own to worry about. (Four budgies, two cockatiels). I had no idea it was that expensive though but I should have expected as much.

we did and have raised a little...we are longtime members of the livejournal site and so far they have raised 197. we seem to be at a standstill tho the past 3 weeks...but im working and trying to set a little aside every 2 weeks too... have a look!...
http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=fruitbatz

I'm an avid LJ'er myself and will spread the word if you want? Have you tried the various parrot communities? (parrot_lovers is the first one that comes to mind.) I could make a post about it for you there if you'd like?

I wish you the best of luck. Please keep us updated!

use a credit card.

easier said than done - we have applied for a couple yes, the one we have is maxed out...CC
i thought about applying for a personal loan so we could just get on with it and move, the only reason we are still here in the states is we are trying to save the money, and we are waiting for our tax return in the spring. 

the other problem with the site raising money to bring "Harpo" to England is most people who see things like that online think its a scam...we have been members of that site for years and years, so the people there know us well, hence only LJ users who know us have donated...which we really appreciate.
live and learn i guess.

not to be rude, but i personally dont think you should be 'raising' money at all. its basically begging. and coming from someone who just spent $1500 bringing my dog with me to england without asking anybody for a penny, i dont really understand it.  i worked about 50 hours a week at my job and got into alot of debt to bring him over.  get a second or even third job if you have to. cut out some expenses. sell your car. work on the corner (just kidding ha). but there are definitely plenty of ways to make $1000 fairly quick.

first of all it wasnt even my idea, the members of the site came together with the idea...2ndly i am working one job at 70 hours per week., theres no time for a "2nd job".
3rdly we just went through another major hurricane that set us back  a good 400$ weekly and are still trying to play catchup....
there are alot of variables to the situation here, .... thanks for the input.

I've seen plenty of cases where people are just trying to scam and make money. But moving is EXPENSIVE. Moving with your pet is even more expensive. I'm scared that I won't even get to take mine with me. I think that if you can gain some extra money by asking online, this is one of those cases where it's justified. I normally don't agree with it but sometimes you have to do everything you can. Why can't this be one of those things along with working and selling things? I don't see why it's so different. You do what you can.

But I do see where the skepticism comes from. Still, it's better to know the full story before assuming that this is the ONLY thing that is being done in order to try and raise money.

i wasnt assuming this was the only way, i was just saying i didnt think it should be one of the ways at all.

Why not? If people are willing to help another person out (so long as that person isn't relying completely on others to do her work for her and she isn't) I don't see what the problem is? If I could spare the money and didn't have my own pets to worry about, I'd happily donate to such a cause.

African greys live for a long time. They're extremely sensitive parrots that often bond strongly with their family. I'm not saying this is the only reason either, I'm just pointing out that this is one reason I would really hate to see her separted from her bird. It's pretty rare to find someone who is willing to make a lifelong (or longer) commitment to an animal that can be so incredibly difficult to own.

Well, it probably IS desperate. Lol.

I haven't even started the process with my pets and I already feel desperate just from reading what I'll have to go through. I'll sell everything I own if it ends up helping to get them there. I'll do whatever it takes. And if I'm still short? You better believe I'll resort to begging online (and everywhere else if that's what it takes). No one HAS to help. You don't even have to respond to this post if you're not interested.

There's no point in criticizing someone's desperation. If you were in her shoes maybe it would be different.

I've seen people beg online for help with vet bills and I have to admit that that DOES bug me to no end. Vet bills are something you should plan ahead for but sometimes life changes (like moving to another country) aren't planned for at all and leave us in a bit of a bad spot. Especially when you have an animal that has been with you all your live and will most likely still be living when you're old and grey. That's just another reason why so many of them end up in rescues. Who knows what their *entire* life is going to hold for them?

This is such a tough situation that you're in.  Unlike moving a dog or cat overseas, once you involve anything requiring a CITES permit and/or U.S. Fish and Wildlife clearance, things become much more complicated, time-consuming, and costly.  (I used to work in a similar field.)  
Here are some ideas:
Maybe you can throw a bon voyage party for yourselves, and in lieu of gifts, you could ask for a donation to the Move Harpo Too Fund.
Maybe make it clear to your friends and family that, for Christmas, you don't want a bunch of gifts that you'll end up having to leave behind when you move, or that won't work in the UK anyway, and ask them for money instead.
Or, how about getting really creative.  You know how they have "adopt a <insert name of endangered animal here>" charities.  Maybe you can do something similar on ebay where people bid to "adopt" your parrot.  For the winning bidder, you can send them information about African grey parrots along with monthly updates and photos of him, or if you can teach him your sponsor's name, you can even send them a video clip of him saying thank you to the sponsor.
Just some ideas. . . .
Good luck!