Starting a Reptiles Sanctuary in Florida

I live in South Florida and i am trying to start a reptile sanctuary so people can bring in there snakes or lizards or amphibians they do not want anymore, so they don't feel the need to go let them go in a park or in the everglades etc. I believe if this was around before the reptile bans, we wouldn't have a problem with burms etc in our ecosystem and we wouldn't have these new laws. So i have been starting slowly by posting adds on Craigslist.com for unwanted reptiles. Guess what?? Ive received 5 ball pythons a savannah monitor and a beardy in the last month and a half, seems pretty darn effective to me. Now turn that into something big and get a building to house a lot of reptiles and advertise on TV and that will solve our reptile problem. So the more people willing to help maybe we all can make this a reality.

Do you have the funds to keep these critters alive? I know the beardie alone is like a minimum of $15 a week and if rats are 1.50 each that's 7.50 for the recent rescues. And that sav. I'm not 100% but o think they eat a mouse every other day? $3.50 for him a week. Seems small at $26 a week but that's like $100 bucks a month just for the recent rescues!

How will you get rid of the animals that you adopt?

Sounds like a good idea but the invasion in Florida wasn't caused by pet owners. There just the ones being blamed :).

Good luck Austin :)

Yes i do have the funds for just my personal animals that's why im not going any further as of now and ive adopted out the beardy and savvy already to good friends that are in the reptile business one works at our local reptile wholesale Strictly Reptiles and i know a few FWC officers who love reptiles and hate the new laws, my buddy Frank whos an FWC officer, i gave him my Albino Burmese to because he had the permits and i did not. And im breeding my own mice so no fees there. I have friends in all sorts of places so if i get more reptiles they will gladly take them in. I wont adopt reptiles out to just anyone i am very weary about who i adopt them out to.

Hi,

The thing that has always worried me about reptile resues is the quarantine issue.

I am in no way trying to bust your chops but do you have 7 different rooms you can QT animals in or did you use one room with all the animals in it and reset the QT clock with each one? and, since you have already re-homed three animals, how long did you QT them before deciding they were clean?

The idea of lots of different animals coming together from lots of different sources, being held in the same location then disseminated to lots of different end point collections is a vertiable nightmare if something went wrong. :(

Reptile resues also tend to get a disproportionately large number of animals with problems which can get very expensive given the price charged by qualified vets.

Have you had many problems with people trying to surrender the newly illegal animals? How does that sit legally?


dr del

The "illegal" animals aren't illegal yet. Not until July. And I am sure there will still be amnesty days. But the first thing I think you should do is apply for your 501C(3) status so that you can accept donations and for real be a rescue. You will also need some of the permits from FWC which I'm sure your friends can clue you in on.

First get rid of the idea that the burmese in the Everglades came from pet owners releasing their snakes.

Second, lay out a plan on paper of what you can take in, what species you cannot take in(ROC unless you can get a permit), what can you house, where can you quarentine... and how you'll pay for all of it?

Reptile rescues usually end up with a large number of animals they can't adopt out, either because the people who DO like/want them already have been given animals, or they don't have the facilities or permits or money to properly keep them.

If you take in ball pythons for instance, you'll need ot have a quarentine, and also a holding area to house XX ball pythons. The quarentine time starts ANYTIME a new animal has been brought in. So if you have 10 ball pythons that have been in quarentine for 5 months... and you want to take another one, you'll have 11 ball pythons in there for another 6 months.(or however long your quarentine is).

How many mice can you produce per week? Can you expand that if you grow? Can you breed and raise your own mealworms/crickets/feeders? How much bedding will you need per week? What will you do with the soiled bedding? What about an exotic vet? How will you cover vets bills, and at what point would you euthanize rather than treat?

Just trying to think of all the concerns to address before you suddenly get in over your head. All the little details that a lot of people here have addressed with their personal collectiosn would be relevant to your proposed rescue. Best of luck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

First get rid of the idea that the burmese in the Everglades came from pet owners releasing their snakes.

Second, lay out a plan on paper of what you can take in, what species you cannot take in(ROC unless you can get a permit), what can you house, where can you quarentine... and how you'll pay for all of it?

Reptile rescues usually end up with a large number of animals they can't adopt out, either because the people who DO like/want them already have been given animals, or they don't have the facilities or permits or money to properly keep them.

If you take in ball pythons for instance, you'll need ot have a quarentine, and also a holding area to house XX ball pythons. The quarentine time starts ANYTIME a new animal has been brought in. So if you have 10 ball pythons that have been in quarentine for 5 months... and you want to take another one, you'll have 11 ball pythons in there for another 6 months.(or however long your quarentine is).

How many mice can you produce per week? Can you expand that if you grow? Can you breed and raise your own mealworms/crickets/feeders? How much bedding will you need per week? What will you do with the soiled bedding? What about an exotic vet? How will you cover vets bills, and at what point would you euthanize rather than treat?

Just trying to think of all the concerns to address before you suddenly get in over your head. All the little details that a lot of people here have addressed with their personal collectiosn would be relevant to your proposed rescue. Best of luck.

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I cannot take in any more than 7-8 snakes at a time right now my house is only so large so any of this stuff your reading will not happen for another 2-3 years if i do this on my own. So all of these concerns about getting in over my head don't worry about it. Guess i should have mentioned that in the original post.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dr del

Hi,

The thing that has always worried me about reptile resues is the quarantine issue.

I am in no way trying to bust your chops but do you have 7 different rooms you can QT animals in or did you use one room with all the animals in it and reset the QT clock with each one? and, since you have already re-homed three animals, how long did you QT them before deciding they were clean?

The idea of lots of different animals coming together from lots of different sources, being held in the same location then disseminated to lots of different end point collections is a vertiable nightmare if something went wrong. :(

Reptile resues also tend to get a disproportionately large number of animals with problems which can get very expensive given the price charged by qualified vets.

Have you had many problems with people trying to surrender the newly illegal animals? How does that sit legally?


dr del

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I have had one call about a Burmese python so far and i directed them to a permitted reptile business that could take it in. Im not going to spend 100 bucks on a permit that will be useless as of July 1st. Plus ive had a Burmese 2 years ago and then the permit law came out so me being a law abiding citizen didn't have the money to buy the permit and microchip so i gave her to my buddy who had the permits because he worked for FWC plus he has a retic too.

Please be careful calling yourself an animal rescue. I am sure your state has strict guidelines for these businesses. Even if you aren't a real rescue group, just calling yourself that could bring the wrath of big brother down on you. Florida is probably not a good place to use these words right now with the new laws going into effect.

If you really want to do this, contact a lawyer, one that is somewhat connected to someone in the state government. They will tell you to set up a corporation or at the very least a LLC. You will need commercial zoned property too. Please don't try to do this from your house. A zoning violation will not be good for you or your cause.

Imagine the local 6 pm news. A family located on 555 Main St. Anywhere Florida had a visit from police and animal welfare agents today. 20 snakes and 10 lizards were confiscated due to neighborhood complants. The animals were kept in Tupperware containers and the animals were living in unhealthy condition. There was excrement in many of the tupperware containers and the house was full of rats and mice.

See how your goodwill could come back to backfire and grab you in the butt.

Whatever you do, do it properly, according to local and state laws.

Jim Smith

Quote:

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Originally Posted by j_h_smith

Please be careful calling yourself an animal rescue. I am sure your state has strict guidelines for these businesses. Even if you aren't a real rescue group, just calling yourself that could bring the wrath of big brother down on you. Florida is probably not a good place to use these words right now with the new laws going into effect.

If you really want to do this, contact a lawyer, one that is somewhat connected to someone in the state government. They will tell you to set up a corporation or at the very least a LLC. You will need commercial zoned property too. Please don't try to do this from your house. A zoning violation will not be good for you or your cause.

Imagine the local 6 pm news. A family located on 555 Main St. Anywhere Florida had a visit from police and animal welfare agents today. 20 snakes and 10 lizards were confiscated due to neighborhood complants. The animals were kept in Tupperware containers and the animals were living in unhealthy condition. There was excrement in many of the tupperware containers and the house was full of rats and mice.

See how your goodwill could come back to backfire and grab you in the butt.

Whatever you do, do it properly, according to local and state laws.

Jim Smith

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Yet again, i am not calling myself an animal rescue nor am i starting one at the moment. This is an idea i started taking in unwanted reptiles and i am at my limit for now. SO IN NOW WAY AM I CONSIDERING MYSELF AN ANIMAL RESCUE SO NO I DON'T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THE LAW. THIS IS AN IDEA FOR THE FUTURE NOT NOW! I AM DOING IT SMALL SCALE VERY VERY SMALL SCALE. I AM NOT TAKING IN THE REPTILES OF CONCERN I NEED NOT WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING. I HAVE A TOTAL OF 5 SNAKES ALL BALL PYTHONS I AM NOT TAKING ANYMORE AT THE MOMENT. SO RELAX WITH THE COMMENTS ABOUT ETC ETC ETC ITS NO CONCERN THESE ARE FUTURE PLANS....