King County deputies are investigating the theft of more than 30 parrots stolen over the weekend from the Macaw Rescue & Sanctuary in Carnation.
"You go numb you have feelings that somebody just ripped my heart out," said Bob Dawson, who has been running the sanctuary for about 12 years.
The sanctuary is home to more than 800 parrots. Many of them were given up as pets to live among other birds in large cages.
"I just feel like I’ve let a lot of people down," said Dawson.
He believed that his sanctuary was targeted by thieves who may want to sell the parrots online.
The thieves didn't take any of the iconic Macaw parrots, but instead focused on other types.
In one cage, most all of the blue parrots were stolen and the thieves left the green ones.
"I believe it was targeted as to what birds to take," Dawson added. "They have no value and other than they mean something to their owners and to us. It's our responsibility to take care of them."
However, Dawson said that some of the birds can sell for hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.
Volunteers are scouring Craigslist to see if someone is trying to sell them.
"It's just unbelievable to me that somebody would do this," said Dawson.
Dawson said nothing like this has ever happened in all of the years he's been running the sanctuary.
None of the cages had locks on them, and he did not have surveillance cameras.
"You want to have faith in humans, but when this happens, you lose faith real fast," said Dawson.
Now he's planning to padlock all of the cages, put up surveillance cameras and microchip the birds.
However, Dawson said that he's still hopeful someone will return the birds
He's pleading for the thieves to just return them to any bird sanctuary, humane society or rescue.
If the birds return, he says he'll accept them. No questions asked.
"We just want the birds to be safe," said Dawson.