Recently, after spending a day taking in the sights at Death Valley National Park, my wife and I spent a night in
Pahrump, Nevada... Pahrump being the closest place where we could find reasonably priced accommodation. While there, I was looking at Google Maps, trying to find somewhere to eat dinner, when I noticed that our rental was only a few blocks away from the Heidi Fleiss Macaw Sanctuary.
I wondered if that was the same Heidi Fleiss who gained fame/infamy in the 1990s as the "Hollywood Madam." Some googling revealed that it was. Fleiss now describes herself as "a retired Hollywood Madam turned active Macaw patroness."

image source: google maps
Google maps showed opening hours for the macaw sanctuary, which led me to believe that it must be open to the public. So the next morning we drove over to check it out.
Turns out it's definitely not open to the public. As you drive up you're greeted by several very large "KEEP OUT" signs, so we turned around and drove away. Though we were able to see a macaw on the property, sitting on top of a trellis.
I'm guessing that Fleiss must initially have intended to make her macaw sanctuary open to the public, but after several of her macaws were shot, she's decided to keep it private.
More info:
wikipedia,
Daily Mail ("an intimate glimpse inside her remote $1 MILLION 'bird house' in the Nevada desert")
Category: Animals | Celebrities