Find out how YOU can get involved in reptile rescue . . .

Another great rescue site to check out is Forgotten Friend Reptile Sanctuary at www.forgottenfriend.org . We always have new arrivals coming and going, and always trying to get the reptile community from every area more involved in rescue. ^_^


Jesse

"Find out how you can get involved in reptile rescue . . ."

 

Great information! Thanks.

 

I was wondering how you start a reptile rescue agency, there seem to be alot of unwanted reptiles around here, that are being dumped etc. I am thinking about starting one. I heard you just have to get a business liscence, and then come up with a name?

 

I want to start a rescue agency for leopard geckos, but there aren't too many unwanted one around me.
Boababe- I love that pic!! What kind of snake is it?

 

I can't take credit for that pic, someone on www.repticzone.com made a post saying people could use his picture for things as long as we gave him credit. So it was a user on repticzones picture.

That is a Ball Python, I have 2.

 

ohh, cool!

 

we need something like that in Canada aswell, i would love to do something like that.
Is it hard? What do you have to do?

 

It's so great to hear you guys want to start reptile rescues. They are genuinely needed. My local humane league never turns away reptiles, but addmittedly, they've told me they are not even close to being setup for reptiles.

Starting a rescue can be alot of work until everything is actually official. In PA, there are not as many requirements as some states so I get off easy. I've talked to folks in other states who are required to have rescue permits, exotic permits, venomous permits, etc, depending on state (and local) laws. So know the laws on your state. Check your state fish and wildlife commission of comparable agencey to find out about rescue laws in your state.

As long as you don't have the major laws holding you back, the best way to start is getting in touch with local zoos, pet stores, shelters, etc. Believe me, they will be relieved to know there's a reptile specialist around diong a rescue and will give you a bunch of calls that they otherwise turn away completely. Also hit up some reptile shows or herpetological societies in your area with fliers/info to let them know what you're doing. Don't worry about having things "all figured out" when you start out. Trial and experience will help you define your guidelines better than anything else. If you run into any questions ask another rescue. Most of them were really nice to me as far as letting me copy any of their applications and stuff like that to get started.

Hope this helps you guys! Good luck starting some rescues...we need them!

 

thanks! I know in my state you have to have a permit to keep any native snakes. And I definately think that for the time being I won't be able to rescue any venemous animals. I probably won't start this for atleast 7 more years, but I will continue to take in any unwanted ball pythons and geckos, until I can start abig reptile rescue.

 

Just remember, many rescue animals have been reprived of proper care, have special needs and most need vet care right away along with very time consuming care. Make sure you have the ability to care for them and see that they have proper medical care and related expenses. Too often, the animals need to be rescued from the so called RESCUE

 

couldn't agree more

Cheri brings up a GREAT point. A lot of well meaning rescues that are eager to help take in more than they can handle and end up leaving the animals in awful shape. I have seen this from so many animals of rescued, that are taken in by folks who "rescued" them from someone else, but the bedding is caked to the bottom of the cage, or the reptiles haven't been fed or heated right.

My best advice in to avoid becoming a rescue that puts animals in jeopardy is don't bite off more than you can chew. Don't run a zoo, run a NETWORK. We have folks sign up ahead of time for reptiles they'd adopt should one come in. Then when we get it in, we have potential homes already lined up.

Also give folks some limits on what you can take in, or make the surrendering owners do a little work first. Require them to give it a vet checkup first if its unhealthy, require them to list their animal on an adoption site for a month before you will take it in, or offer to list it for adoption while it remains in their care. This spreads the workload around and keeps your day-to-day work easier to maintain. Remember, if you have more animals than you can handle, you're not helping ANY of them. Especially if you bring in diseased animals that you're unable to quarantine.

 

A lot of people try to jump into this also thinking they will get free animals to sale... let me tell you, that IS NOT going to happen if you care for the animals properly and the time they need to recover and be healthy. Few rescues will ever come in being in healthy shape to be placed quickly. I think we average about $60 in vet cost (even with us doing the majority of the care), $12 in meds, and figure in more for food and equiptment like the lights, enclosures, cleaning etc. Granted you can reuse those, so the cost is spread out over several animals, but lights especially need replaced often as many of these animals need strong quality UVB . Lack if proper diet and UVB is what most of them suffer from, besides parasites and worms for unclean conditions. The stay with us is minimum 2 months to a few have been with us for a year before placed.

Let me give you an example, this is a bearded dragon that was taken in by a so called rescue the month prior...... ends up on an ad on a popular reptile sale site. She is extremely malnourished, has a seriously fungal infection on her skin/scales and is probably close to death, heaven knows she is probably infected with parasites and worms too......yet they were trying to sell her for $150. Please NOTE, I am giving ownership credit to the business that owned her and the picture, listed below the picture

Photo owned by ReptilesToGo

Now, for those that do not know, this is what a healthy female bearded dragon should look like.


Basically, if you can not afford to take an animals like the one in the first picture, and turn it into the dragon in the second picture (or as best as can be) then this is not something you should jump into, as rugbyman said above

plus, I can not begin to tell you how much you will get on my bad side (you really do not want to be there) and the lengths I will go to make sure it does not happen again by the same person This is abuse, plain and simple and will be treated as that

 

Oh my that is a sad story about that beardie, but even sadder is the fact that Cheri is right about a lot of folks getting in rescue for the wrong reasons. We had a guy running a rescue scam in a neighboring county who just got shut down. The first red flag was his business card. I first met the guy when he had a table at a local reptile show, and his card was an expensive full color laminated card with a picture of him doing a crocodile hunter pose. Not the kinda thing a rescue has extra money to waste on.

Just this weekend I ran into someone from the SPCA (a real animal rescue) in this scam artist's county. Turns out the guy was charging like $150 just to pickup a reptile. If he didn't want to take care of it, he'd just pick it up somewhere, collect his fee, and drop it off at another animal rescue on the way home and let them deal with treating the reptile. On top of that, they caught him selling his reptiles out of the newspaper. Needless to say this guy was shut down.

I know of a couple ethical rescues (including my own) that will use reptile classifieds like kingsnake.com to advertise their reptiles. It is imperative to be 100% honest in these forums so there's no doubt what kind of operation you're really running or you'll be grouped in with "the dark side". We only use the bigger forums as a last resort, and when we do we A. let folks know we are from a rescue and this is a rescue animal and B. that anyone interested will be screened like any of our adoptions. and of course C. we are not trying to get top dollar for unhealthy reptiles. Rather we try to get modest adoption fees to keep away free-animal seekers and help with our expenses. These larger forums have helped us place a lot of animals in great homes, but are NEVER to be used as fire sale venues. The truth catches up with the "dark side" of rescues real quick, as both Cheri and I have seen first hand.

Like Cheri said,

Nothing could be more true. On the other hand don't be afraid to help a few animals just because you can't save them all. A lot of rescues are specifically for turtles, or lizards, or big snakes, etc, or don't deal with the most problematic reptiles (iguanas, sliders, burms, etc.) so they can spend enough effort with other rescues. It's okay to set your limits small when you start out, just make sure you're getting into rescue to help people and reptiles, not make money, because if you're not doing it from your heart, you won't last.

Jesse
Forgotten Friend Reptile Sanctuary
www.forgottenfriend.org

 

AND... you don't want to get on my bad side

The person selling that dragon above, was dealt with, both by the county and also by her employer (they were using their employer's email acct to sell the animals on, they(her employer was not related to any reptile business, they are a software company and horrified when they learned of this). There is also a thread on Fauna Classified.com's Board of Inquiry as a "bad guy" post, that will remain there should anyone want to check out this person by real name or business name for ethics in future dealings. Hopefully the scam they were trying to pull, they now realizes was not worth the cost to them, or the animal.

 

Yay Cheri! Go get em!

 

Another big help is to list yourself with a rescue as a temp foster home. When we had 4 hurricanes here within 2 month and 3 of those in one month, a lot of reptiles were displaced when owners homes were damaged or destroyed. Many temp placements where needed to house healthy animals til the owners were in housing again and could provide for them. They can not go to the people shelters with the owners or motels. Most Humane societies are not equipted with the heat/UVB or housing needs for reptiles. Also, its nice to offer to help with the reptiles for a evening, day or weekend so rescue managers can take a day off once in awhile.

You do learn so much in working with rescue or rehab reptiles, that is valuable in itself and by doing foster or volunteering to fill in for a feeding round or day... you learn and help without the added expense of their financial care.

 

I probably won't start one either until I'm older. I would love to, but with school and everything else I won't have enough time for the reptiles. I also wouldn't be able to pay for everything that they need.

 

Roxy,
You're wise to know your limits. I think Cheri gave some great advice to you and all the other aspiring rescuers out there when she said

and

. If you're not sure if you're ready to do a rescue yourself, start by working with one to find out more about it, we sure can use the help!.

Instead of buying your next reptile, adopt through a rescue so you can see a little of the process, and what kind of animals they work with. Call your local animal shelter and ask if there is a reptile rescue in your area. If there is, maybe you can help them out from time to time to get a taste of it and see what you're getting into.

There's always some way to be involved in reptile rescue even if you can't run your own.

 

Thanks for all the ideas! I volunteer at the animal shelter in my town, but they don't have any reptiles. This weekend I'll try to remember to ask about a rescue for them.

 

Donate items to your local reptile rescue! If you have extra things you think they could use donate them. I have an extra 15g tank Im going to donate to my local rescue as soon as I find a ride.