Starting a Reptiles Sanctuary in Florida

[mechnut450]

hey Austin236 i think it be a great ideal and such if you can swing it. I know with the few rescues I done personally it gets hard at times. specially if you post about willing to take in such snakes and all on open places like craigslist and such.. cause there are those out there that are jealous, evil , or what ever they want to think it is they call it . I had people accuse me of just trying to get breeding stock, free snakes, and such (just recently) by doing so. I never orginally planned to breed, or do the taking in of snakes( heck I never planned to own more than 5-8 )when I started to actually look at snakes. I have considerd stop taking in any more snakes due to these people rude remarks and such.

I will be limiting my collection and thinning it down a lot over the next year I believe until I can actually own a place to have everythign I need ( mainly room to do it right) it sucks that it may never happen since being on disablity mean I will never really have money or the ablity to do it full time on my own.

I need to look into getting the proper class,training and such and see what I can do in getting properly set up to do rescues, and such snce the SPCA in DE does not handle reptile related calls.

[Austin236]

"So please don't start spamming me with oh you need permits or don't do this don't do that, do you have this or that."

Sooo... what was the purpose of posting your intention to start a reptile sanctuary? Did you think everyone would leap up and down and sing praises to you? Everyone here is great on the idea of a properly run reptile sanctuary. Everyone was posting advice and things you might not think of when opening a sanctuary.

Right now it sounds like you adopted a few animals and have been pushing the rest off on a business run by someone you know. It's great to adopt animals that need a home, but putting out that you're a rescue and a reptile sanctuary then turning around and saying no no, you'll be looking into it in 3-4 years.. it's just not really kosher, especially not in florida, where all the permits and restrictions are going into place.

Then in your first post, you're talking about how the burmese problem is from owners releasing pets, which we all know isn't the case. You should be well informed BEFORE you start posting how you'll be a reptile rescue and putting yourself forward AS one.

We want the same thing, reptiles to have somewhere to go safe to care for them properly. Don't get all out-of-sorts just because people offer advice and ask questions. It's because THEY care about reptiles too. Surprise.. this is a site for reptile lovers.

Yet AGAIN i said i am sorry i didn't put thought into my first posting i kinda threw it together and posted it without all the proper info i should have posted. Yes the pet owner thing is part of the problem not 100% ok. So stop giving me lip and we can continue this thread in a nice nonaggressive fashion. Ok and maybe if people replied in a nice manner i wouldn't feel like i had to defend myself.

[Austin236]

hey Austin236 i think it be a great ideal and such if you can swing it. I know with the few rescues I done personally it gets hard at times. specially if you post about willing to take in such snakes and all on open places like craigslist and such.. cause there are those out there that are jealous, evil , or what ever they want to think it is they call it . I had people accuse me of just trying to get breeding stock, free snakes, and such (just recently) by doing so. I never orginally planned to breed, or do the taking in of snakes( heck I never planned to own more than 5-8 )when I started to actually look at snakes. I have considerd stop taking in any more snakes due to these people rude remarks and such.

I will be limiting my collection and thinning it down a lot over the next year I believe until I can actually own a place to have everythign I need ( mainly room to do it right) it sucks that it may never happen since being on disablity mean I will never really have money or the ablity to do it full time on my own.

I need to look into getting the proper class,training and such and see what I can do in getting properly set up to do rescues, and such snce the SPCA in DE does not handle reptile related calls.

Yeah i have had my fare share of rude calls, and people asking me if i will take Burmese Pythons etc and i politely say no and direct them to a place that will take in there pet that i can't legally own. But i haven't had any people accusing me of wanting free snakes although i thought that might be a problem when i first decided to do this. I limited myself to 6 snakes total i have 4 at the moment i haven't had any calls as of recently but thats because my post expired and i don't feel i need more reptiles to care for right now until i move in the next 2 months. Then i will have 2 acres of back yard so ill be building a big shed for all my snakes, but im going to hold off on the rescues for now. Thank you for your nice comment.

[j_h_smith]

Yet AGAIN i said i am sorry i didn't put thought into my first posting i kinda threw it together and posted it without all the proper info i should have posted. Yes the pet owner thing is part of the problem not 100% ok. So stop giving me lip and we can continue this thread in a nice nonaggressive fashion. Ok and maybe if people replied in a nice manner i wouldn't feel like i had to defend myself.

No one is being agressive towards you or your posts. You post something, are given a dose of reality and you change everything or don't answer a pretty important question to you.

You are the one that posted your intentions. Some here are asking you to explain what needs you think you will be filling, others, including me, wanted to tell you there's a lot more to setting up a rescue other than buying reptiles from Craigslist.

You need to decide whether you want to take our advice/concerns to heart and learn from them or continue to act like a little kid and keep up the "Stop Picking On Me" posts.

What needs are you trying to fulfill by setting up a rescue? Are there that many unwanted reptiles in your area? Are you willing/able to take in all of these unwanted animals with all of their problems and expenses?

Do you have a really good herp vet that you can count on as well as give you great deals on vet visits?

Again, none of these things are "Picking On You", this is called reallity.

Learn to live with it!
Jim Smith

[wolfy-hound]

Yet AGAIN i said i am sorry i didn't put thought into my first posting i kinda threw it together and posted it without all the proper info i should have posted. Yes the pet owner thing is part of the problem not 100% ok. So stop giving me lip and we can continue this thread in a nice nonaggressive fashion. Ok and maybe if people replied in a nice manner i wouldn't feel like i had to defend myself.

There's no aggression in the thread except from you. Everyone wanted to HELP you, by pointing out things you'll have to deal with or know. You're the one squalling that people are attacking you.

YOU want to be a rescue, so do you think that you ALREADY know everything you'll need to know? You absolutley need no advice from experianced herp keepers? No help from the community? Really? I wasn't aware that you were so experianced that you already knew everything about herps there is to know. I'll stop trying to help you.

I've lived in Florida for 39 years. I've been dealing with F&W since before I was in my teens. I've been researching the laws and the care and the procedures for reptiles for several years now, and somehow I haven't even begun to learn everything about herps. Must be nice to know so much that you don't need any help or advice from anyone.

Best wishes in whatever plans you end up trying.

[cinderbird]

Yes the pet owner thing is part of the problem not 100% ok. S

if the owner release is part of the problem its an extremely small percentage. I'm talking less than 5%. Which doesn't constitute much of a problem does it?

The burms are in florida because of the hurricane that destroyed the import facilities down there in 94 or 96 (I believe it was hurricane Andrew). Almost all the burms caught are wild type animals. If these were owner releases we'd be finding morphs and designer morphs.

People are responding very politely to your thread. You seem to be the one getting your knickers in a twist. No one here is a mind reader, if you don't type out your plan and logistics, no one here is going to know them. But because this is a large concentration of people who LOVE reptiles, we want to make sure the right things are done which is where all the talk of permitting and money and allocation and zoning come in.

I'd recommend posting with an apology, and then going over your plan in detail that way you can get the advice you came here for.

[dr del]

Hi,

This thread is mainly just going round in circles I think.

We have given all the info needed about things that need considering and the OP has stated he mis-spoke in the first post and will not be jumping into this.

At this point I think it is probably best just to lock the thread.


dr del