About Us

Birdsbesafe® LLC helps you protect songbirds from outdoor cats.

George's Story

Birdsbesafe® LLC began when Nancy Brennan solved her own problem with her dastardly bird-hunting cat, George, shown here. Being a birdwatcher and bird lover, Ms. Brennan hated to see him bring his captured birds back home. He caught so many of the woodland birds, it was heart-breaking. He was such a strong hunter, he caught a game bird: a ruffed grouse!

George was used to going outdoors at will through his cat door. What could be done? A search for a solution led to an inspiration.

In the spring of 2008, Ms. Brennan had an idea: "Didn't birds see bright colors super well? What if birds saw George easily and quickly? Would they have time to fly off?" It was certainly worth a try.

She sewed a tube of brightly colored fabric and put it around George's cat collar to make it easier for the birds to see him when he was stalking. Wearing bright colors, George was immediately turned into a non–bird-killing cat. He didn't catch any for the first day, week, or month. He had always brought his prey indoors to us, so the difference was dramatic and very clear.

There was peace and quiet at home, and George didn't miss being scolded. No more feathers; no more guilt! And George didn't seem to mind wearing the collar cover or the change in his hunting prowess. He even started sleeping in at dawn, instead of hunting, which had to make him safer too.

In the next 18 months, over two summers, George caught maybe 2 or 3 birds. He never brought another one in through his cat door, which had been his steady habit before. The trick of using bright colors was an astonishing success! With this innovation, Ms. Brennan had figured out how to help the birds be safe from George.

Birdsbesafe LLC

Birdsbesafe LLC began with a two-part mission: Test the product with cats across the U.S. and see if it worked well for other cats, and, then, work towards making it a well-known, widely marketed solution to outdoor cats preying on birds. There are about 65 million outdoor-going pet cats in the U.S. alone. Our company goal was to help many of those cats become ineffective bird-hunters.

Ms. Brennan began Birdsbesafe LLC in 2009 to make her home-grown and carefully designed solution to cats killing birds available to you, in stores, on this website and on Amazon. Our solution is popular in Europe as well as in the U.S. and Canada.

In Stores. For a list of stores that sell Birdsbesafe, go here: www.birdsbesafe.com/pages/stores. Our list is growing every week, now. If you are the owner or manager of a pet store or nature shop, please see our Wholesale page for ordering information. The Birdsbesafe® solution is well-regarded and has received much publicity, nationally and internationally. (Read our blog posts for information on recent events and news.)

Scientific Validation. In early 2015, a major milestone arrived when an independent scientific study was published confirming that Birdsbesafe cat collars work very effectively to reduce the numbers of birds killed by cats. The St. Lawrence University based study showed about an 87% reduction expected in birds caught when cats where Birdsbesafe® collar covers. Great! Publicity about that study and an Australian study, surged in March 2015, as did Birdsbesafe® cat collar cover orders. We are confidently selling our products to more individual customers and more stores than ever.

We're in Vermont. Birdsbesafe® LLC is in Duxbury, Vermont. Product inventor and business owner Nancy Brennan is an intrepid entrepreneur who enjoys saving birds. She holds a bachelor's degree in biology from Middlebury College in Vermont, and a master's degree from the Univ. of Massachusetts in regional planning. 

Ms. Brennan is a lifelong nature-lover, a birdwatcher, and an environmentalist. Once a fledgling small business owner, Ms. Brennan now proudly oversees a robustly growing business, with international patents and a widening market for its innovative product. Birdsbesafe LLC is making the world safer for birds every day.

Made in the U.S. Our Birdsbesafe® cat collar covers are proudly sewn in the U.S., in the southeastern and northeastern states. Our company mission includes a commitment to good wages for those who sew our product. Does that mean it costs a little more? Yes, but, we hope that you will support our company values, as we try to "do good" while doing good business.

The success of Birdsbesafe® LLC, so far, is a result of our product helping our customers save birds. We appreciate each and every social media post, word-of-mouth recommendation, and informal plea to your local pet store owner to carry the product. You, the cat-owners and bird-lovers, have helped us take our idea for an innovative product and make it a valuable tool for bird conservation.

It is our privilege to be helping birds be safe from Alaska to Florida, from Iceland to the UK, Netherlands, France, Germany and beyond. Our success is due to cat owners who are willing to make a difference, one cat at a time.

Thank you for caring about cats and birds!