Stephanie Sayre has been working with animals her entire life. They have been her life’s passion since the time she could walk. She attended the Exotic Animal Training and Management program at Moorpark College (aka “America’s Teaching Zoo”) in 2002 and graduated in 2004 with degrees in zookeeping, wildlife education, and exotic animal training and management. While there she worked with a wide variety of animals including a Bengal tiger, mule deer, raccoons, tamarins, macaws, birds of prey and a few other species. During her time at Moorpark, Ms. Sayre also had the opportunity to work a variety of externships including Apenheul, a primate preserve in Holland, as well as Natural Encounters in Florida and Marine World in Vallejo. After graduation she worked the sea lion show at Six Flags Marine World (now called Discovery Kingdom) and then ran the America’s Teaching Zoo summer children’s program.

In 2006 she decided to focus her passion into birds of prey and worked for a pest abatement business called Sky Patrol. A year later her boss, Tony Suffredini, started sponsoring her for her falconry apprenticeship. It was through falconry that she decided she was going to start a non-profit 501(c)3 bird of prey outreach called Wings of Discovery. Wings of Discovery provides sanctuary to birds of prey that can’t survive in the wild, while using them to help educate the public about their species, their individual stories, and any conservation issues involved with helping their species survive in the wild. She went on to achieve master falconer status through the U.S. Dept. of Fish & Wildlife in 2014 and further studied to get her wildlife rehabilitation certificate to help provide better life-long care to the non-releasable raptors that come to Wings of Discovery from rehab facilities.

Unfortunately, in 2016, she lost her male Great-Horned owl, Ryker, (who had a truly one-in-a-million personality) from a reaction to medication that was considered the “standard of care.” She also had a prairie/gyr falcon, Radar, pass away from liver failure at 19yrs old in December of that same year. Radar, had actually been used for surgical experiments for 6years prior to arriving at Wings of Discovery and, as a result, had major PTSD issues. When she was introduced to essential oils for her own health in 2017, she knew she would have to educate herself on how to safely use them around birds. As she started using them, she started to see a change in the American Kestrel living in her room who was old and had already begun showing signs of arthritis. It was then that she decided she wanted to work towards getting certified on educating others in using these amazing gifts with animals. The thought that Ryker could’ve still been around and that Radar could’ve overcome his PTSD if she had just started using these oils sooner was and is the driving force behind her determination.

Ms. Sayre has since studied under Nancy Brandt, DVM with her Veterinary Medical Aromatherapy course, learned under Caroline Ingraham (world renowned for Applied Zoopharmacognosy - or Animal Self-Medication), took a few courses under Dr. Susan Albright (Animal Scents University), and Dr. Barbara Fox, and finally studied under Janet Roark, DVM (world renowned as “the Essential Oil Vet”) in her Animal Aromatherapy Specialist Course (AASC), where she became a Certified Animal Aromatherapy Specialist. She attended Holistic Health 4 Animals conferences and will continued to further her education as her journey continues. Stephanie has already worked out some pretty significant emotional/behavioral and physical issues with a variety of animals successfully using holistic/natural means and looks forward to helping your animal friends conquer whatever challenges arise as a part of The Essential Oil Vet’s Network of Certified Animal Aromatherapy Consultants.

Stephanie’s most notable case by far has been with her laughing kookaburra, Gumdrop. In the summer of 2021, he developed a crack in his beak. Stephanie knew that even a small crack was a major issue as laughing kookaburras bang their beaks as a natural behavior to keep it in shape for killing their prey. Since she lives in Southern California and these birds are native to Australia it was quite a challenge to find a veterinarian that could help her to stabilize the crack. She even contacted a few different rescues and vet clinics in Australia. One of those places told her that, even after stabilizing the crack, it would take years for the beak to get back to a normal healthy state. Stephanie has never been one to back down from a challenge when an animal’s health is involved (especially a bird). So, with a little integrative thinking and the help of her vet (who’s always willing to work with her outside the box thinking), she developed a protocol and was able to get his beak back to a normal healthy state in mere weeks! After that, Stephanie had all the confidence she needed to start developing webinars and in November of 2021, she became the first to teach a live webinar on how to use aromatherapy products safely with birds of all species. Now, she has taught many different webinars and challenges, and developed a Private Mighty Network Membership called Botanicals 4 Birds! She’s taking the world by storm and turning her previous “birdlady” title into “the botanical birdlady!”