Adopting out?? Please Read this...

Recently, there has been a Person named (Jeremy) on many classified sites asking to adopt ANY FREE animals, and saying he owns a rehab center in TN..... Please read the following excerpt that I cut from another site! This is good advice in my opinion!



"Some advice for anyone researching a reptile rehab facility:
1. There are very few such facilities in existence.
2. Even fewer of them are reputable.
3. It's true -- because so few facilities exist, those that do are full, and do not go online asking for free snakes.
4. No breeding, no selling -- legitimate adoption facilities will charge the same adoption fee for a 2' corn snake as they will for a 15' tiger retic. Actually, a reputable facility might not even make giant snakes available, because of the potential danger they pose. Over the years I've taken 'problem reptiles' from facilities that didn't feel they were safe enough to adopt out to hobbyists.

I suggest a few things here: first, a pet is your responsibility for it's entire natural life. If you can't make that commitment, you shouldn't own the pet. Yeah, reptiles aren't exactly cuddly animals, but that doesn't mean they should be traded around when we get tired of them. That said, sometimes circumstances arise which are beyond our control, and we have to do the best thing for our animals, which means giving them away.

If it comes to that point, look for reputable adoption organizations -- they should have their 501(c)(3) IRS tax-exemption status and be incorporated as nonprofit organizations in their home state. You should be able to schedule a tour. They should have a website -- any reputable organization in the information age will have one. Look for newspaper articles about them, talk to your local humane society and see if they recommend anyone, etc. Be resourceful.

As for this Jeremy guy, there are a lot of red flags, as if the people speaking out here aren't enough. First, having a vet on call 24/7 is very expensive -- veterinarians make over $70,000 a year. Most reptile adoption facilities have annual budgets of under $20,000 a year, so unless Jeremy is a vet or lives with a vet, this is probably a lie. Second, controlling temperature and humidity in "full room enclosures" is very difficult -- I've done it, and I won't do it again. I would like to know what Jeremy uses to heat the rooms, control humidity, provide ventillation, what the substrate is, how he cleans the rooms, etc. And by the way, anyone who says he is keeping small snakes in large rooms is either lying, or a complete idiot.

I'd like a list of school groups that have toured his facility. I'd like the name of the USDA officer that did his last inspection, his EIN, his annual budget, how many on staff and what are their salaries, his species inventory, square footage of his facility, number of full room enclosures and how many animals in each, which species are housed together, etc. A reputable facility will provide this information; in fact some of it is public record.

I don't know what TN law is regarding reptiles -- my guess is there is none, but someone should check it out. There may be city or county laws he is in violation of, or even federal ones. Turn him in. Call local animal control and tell them he is keeping snakes in full room enclosures and allowing respiratory illness to spread throughout his population.

If you need to give up your reptiles, take the extra time and find someone local you trust to take care of them, or look for REAL rehab and adoption facilities. If you have big, scary animals, check out reptile sanctuaries, as opposed to adoption centers -- sanctuaries keep the animals for life. Look at http://www.asaanimalsanctuaries.org and http://www.taosanctuaries.org -- these are accrediting associations for all types of animal sanctuaries, and have listings of their member organizations. You can look at zoos, too, but they usually won't take anything; in fact, they're more often giving animals away. Don't get any ideas, Jeremy -- you're contractually bound to keep the animal, and return it on demand to the zoo. If you sell it, they can prosecute, and if it dies, you may have to provide a necropsy.

Feel free to cut and paste this if it's helpful.

Steve"

Great post. Thank you.