History

The Peacock Foundation was started in 2002 as a Public Benefit Company.  Lisa Peacock was the driving force behind the creation and implementation of our animal assisted interventions.  She suffered the loss of her father at the age of 9 in the crash of Northwest Flight 255.  As a young child death did not make sense, and she was more focused on creating joy for her mother than figuring out where her father had gone.  At her lowest points she would seek out the comfort of animals (horses, dogs, cats, rabbits).  These animals would never tell others how much her heart hurt.   In 1996 Lisa began her higher education at Arizona State University.  And in the spring of 1997 she was thriving.  Until on April 29 her world shattered.  Her mother was killed in a car accident on the way to a meeting.  At 19 she was an orphan.  Relying on friends and family she tried to pick up the pieces of her life.  Never would she imagine that the key to her healing would again lie in the paws, beaks, and hooves of others.  She began working at the Phoenix Zoo in the fall of 1997, and has since professed this as the inspiration for The Peacock Foundation.

Lisa often contemplates what her life would have been like without the accessibility to animals.  Drugs, sex, violence, and other harming behaviors were all hovering in the wings.  However, given the choice an animal was the more appealing of the choices.  “Ask any child,” she says,”and they will tell you time after time that they would choose to be with an animal when they are sad or upset.”  However, so many children do not have this option.  That is why Lisa has devoted her life to finding the children without access to animals, and making sure they get to experience the love and compassion they deserve.

Since conception in 2002, The Peacock Foundation has provided group counseling services to over 1000 children at over 20 community organizations.  The programs have been so sought after that there is now a waiting list, and Lisa is dreaming of the day when that list is again empty.  “Knowing there are children needing our services and we can’t not get to them because of funding is unacceptable,” Lisa states.