The pets I cannot save

I got a phone call from a woman whose son has a six foot long iguana. She heard that I did reptile rescue and wanted me to take her son’s iguana because he was going to be leaving for college in the fall and he wanted to ‘have fun’ this summer. When I said, “No, I’m sorry. I can’t take your son’s iguana,” she became irate, “What do you mean, no? You call yourself a rescue and you’re saying no?”

I have to pat myself on the back. I did not tell her everything that I wanted to tell her. No, I didn’t. Although I wanted to.

But the reality is, Paul took care of all the iguanas and I have no desire whatsoever to continue doing that without his help. He had a pair of armpit high Kevlar lined gloves that he would wear when handling the (cough, cough) difficult iguanas. I’ve been bitten, swatted with tails, and attacked by a few too many of these big lizards and don’t want to do it. So I’m not.

I’m not taking in any more big snakes either. Or monitors. Or tegus. Or blood pythons.

Paul and I did reptile rescue with a few foster homes to help, but we did it primarily on our own. We didn’t get any financial help and very few donations. We did it because we loved the animals and we loved doing educational stuff to teach the next generation.

But I have to be honest with myself. Doing this on my own, I simply can’t save them all and there are some that it would be dangerous (and stupid) for me to take in all by myself. And that includes iguanas.

So what did I tell this woman? I told her that I was not a shelter or a humane society, that I received no public money, that I was doing this on my own, and only took in species and individual animals that I knew I could safely keep or adopt out. I told her I had no obligation or responsibility to take her son’s pet. I also told her the last iguana we took in took us three years to find a home for. After all, as Marines from Camp Pendleton are shipped out, many of them have to place their pets, too. But I also told her that if she was worried about her son’s pet, I would be happy to provide her with guidance as to how to care for his pet should she decide to keep him.

She hung up on me.

Image credit: Iguana, flickr creative commons (chausinho)

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