Blind Rescued Cockatoo Boo Becomes First Bird Named Pet of the Year

Boo’s win lands as more than a feel-good ribbon: the 41-year-old cockatoo from Smithfield, Virginia, became the first bird ever named Pet Partners Pet of the Year for 2026. Boo and his favorite human, Amy Hurst, have been a registered Pet Partners therapy animal team since 2025, and during the competition he raised more than $33,000, the highest fundraising total ever recorded in the contest.

Pet Partners announced the honor on April 16, following a virtual celebration emceed by pet podcast host Arden Moore on April 14. The organization’s award page framed Boo’s victory as a first for parrots in therapy work, and for good reason: a cockatoo had never before taken the national title. For parrot people, that matters because it pushes a working bird, not a dog or cat, into the center of the therapy conversation.

Boo’s path to that stage is the part that gives the title real weight. NC State Veterinary Hospital said cataracts had left him effectively blind for about a quarter of his life. In mid-March 2025, ophthalmology and zoological companion animal medicine specialists at NC State performed phacoemulsification surgery to remove a cataract from one eye, and local reporting later said the surgery restored sight in his right eye. Before that, Boo had lived through a police raid, spent roughly half his life in an abusive situation and then lived with blindness for more than a decade.

That recovery changed what Boo could do and where he could go. NC State described him as a therapy bird for children with autism and for elderly people, and other reporting said he visits neurodivergent children and senior citizens now that his sight has returned. Hurst, identified in one profile as the founder of the Prism Bird Program at Birds in the Dog House, LLC, has turned her own healing journey as a cancer survivor into a broader service mission with Boo at her side.

Boo’s award says something bigger about cockatoos than their loud reputation or their need for demanding care. It shows how a rescued parrot, even one with a brutal history and serious medical problems, can still become a working therapy partner when the veterinary care is specialized, the home is steady and the human on the other end is patient enough to meet the bird where he is.