Question to everyone

[sclark]

Hey all,

I have a general question and wanted some opinions on. Most here know that I take in coldblooded rescues all year long. I fund this whole project out of my pocket because I love helping these reptiles out. I have always tried to sell some of my baby snakes to help with the feeding, and housing costs. Now it seems that the market with reptiles is badly flooded again and selling babys is a hard and long process. So you have an idea of how I do things. I take any and all reptiles in, make sure they are brought back to 100% health. After that I make a choice of keeping them with my own collection or placing them in a new home. When i do place them, I do not charge any fee's, sometimes if there was extensive medical help done, I will sometimes try to recoup some of that, but more times then noe I will just place them. The only rule I have with placing any reptile is the new owner shows me they can care for this new animal and have the proper setup. I also will have most sign an agreement that if they can no longer keep the animal, they will contact me and return the animal. Not saying that rescues who require an adoption fee are doing wrong, just always felt that I would prefer they new owner spends the 30 bucks on making the new pet more comfy. So now it seems I am close to filling all my large cages again, and I have decided I need to build another 8 4x2x2 cages with all the heat, hides and water bowls. Anyone who has purchaced or built a big cage latley knows the cost of these cages are big money. So back to my question. Anyone have any idea of how to raise money for this expansion without asking for donations from the public, charging fees to drop off a pet or adopt an animal. Even if I can find a way to do this, be assured I will always help rescue our cold blooded friends. Just wanted to put this question to a large group of folks and see if anyone had any ideas..

Thanks for your imput..
Steve

[redtailedmel]

Re:Question to everyone

wow thats a toughie!!!! hhhmmmmm are you married/girlfriend if so have them arrange bake sales and maybe a car wash or something( girls in bikinis always get attention lol JK) heck i dunno it always worked when i was in band lmao

[sclark]

Re:Question to everyone

LOL... Thats funny redtailedmel..LOL

Don't know if she would go that far.. Wonder what I could make washing cars in a string bikini.. LOL... Scary thought...
Steve

[Red]

Re:Question to everyone

Well you could organize a ocction for them... You could auction off some of the rescues may-be... Or if you don't want to auction off the rescues you can do it with some of your babies... There is also may-be some school visits they tend to give a lil'... Or even may-be putting those jars out that site by the register in stores... All you would have to do is tell them it is for a non-profit reptile rescue... hit them right in the hart with some photos of the shape the reps are in when they come to you and you could put some on the jar... A bake sale you know talk to the boosters at a local school and find out what they do that works in your area...
If you had a raffel for a Rep. I would buy some tickets... I would say just start trying things and find out what works... I will help If I can... I am not set up to take in rescues but would lov' to help if I can....
Eric aka....Red

[sclark]

Re:Question to everyone

Hey Red,

You got some good ideas there.. I trully appreciate you taking the time to share the ideas. The only thing I am kind of funny with is the auction thing. I have thought about doing it with some of my babies, but I would be the wrst pet store owner. I am funny about just selling snakes. I kind of want to know they will be in a good home. The local petshop owner already told me he would never hire me to work for him. He knows the reptiles would get great care, but I wouldn't sell them to most of the twits who walk in and buy on impulse..LOL I kind of look at the snakes I breed as being my responciblity to make sure they go to the right home.

OK, off my soap box..LOL.. Thanks so much for the helpful suggestions...

Steve

[sclark]

Re:Question to everyone

I should have brought up one reason this all came out. I got my last three bills from Airborne express. Since I have been paying shipping to get alot of these guys, and I always do overnight. The bills totaled more then $2100.00.. Ouch..

Steve

[Red]

Re:Question to everyone

holly crap... That is alot... I can't belive that.... You could have an auction with only people that you know would give it a good home... I know no auctioning... hehe
Well best of luck to you.... I wish there was somthing more I could do but I can't think of anything off the top of my head... just give me a e-mail if you think of anything steve... I am all for helping rescues...
Eric aka...Red

[sclark]

Re:Question to everyone

Yeah red,

My thoughts exactly.. Just so you know shipping a 8 foot boa that weights 46 pounds over night express from across the US costs well over 100 bucks. Atleast with Airborne.. It did get kind of out of hand with shipping, but whats that they say about spilled milk...

I will let you know. I appreciate it.. I assume you are fully settled in now in your new place.. Cool
Steve

[sclark]

Re:Question to everyone

After starting this thread I pulled out some files from last year. Figured some may be interesed in how many rescues I took in from January 2002 to June 20th 2003..

18 ball pythons
11 Redtail boas
8 corn snakes
3 retics
2 rock pythons
1 anaconda
11 garter snakes
6 rat snakes
3 timber rattlers
1 copperhead
1 (no clue, looked like a milk snake mix)
3 iggys
4 box turtles
8 common lizards
1 rat
2 hampsters
2 gerbils

Out of all these resuces I lost 7 snakes that came in with rat bites and close in counters with car wheels.

Not too bad for someone who is running this out of their house and doing 90% of the treatments myself.. ;D

It really is sad when you think about it. >

Steve

[Gun Lover]

Re:Question to everyone

wow steve thats a tuff 1. well you could have the person thats getting the snake pay for the shipping or at least offer to help cover some of the cost of shipping.i would hate to say have a set fee and/or a adoption fee for the snake's which might hurt placing the snakes if there is an adoption fee. your kinda stuck inbetween a rock and a hard place. i know at petco and some other major pet stores there is poster boards where you can post info.might think about putting something like that up and say its a non-profit and post before and after pics and have something like a 30-50 fee its a local person to help recover feeding,housing costs.you can also check w/ churches to see about bakes sales.etc.. and show them the pics ( before & after ) and make them put some heart into it about god's cretures.also i understand that you want to place them in good homes.but if they cant afford to pay for some cost of the snake,lizz,turtle,etc... how could the afford to house,feed then animal ? but you did the right thing about asking every 1 about this.your doing a great job steve just wish i was set up to and able to help out. but there has to be a way to do this like a fund raiser or something. keep us updated on how every thigns going..hats off to you steve.wish there was 1000000 people like you,.

[Barracuda_41]

Re:Question to everyone

8)Steve i have to agree with Gun Lover on the fact that even though you have such a huge heart i would atleast ask for shipping fees and or some donation twoards adoption fees..If your adopting out to someone close by where you dont need to ship then ask that the person cover the vet services that you have provide for the animal.. You have to recover money somewhere to help pay for everything you have done for these wonderful animals, Resuce operations are not easy on our pocket book or wallet... Knowing we helped a critter touches our heart like no other and that we have done something good, we saved a life or gave one a second chance and our heart goes out to each and everyone of them no matter how set back we get or how poor i get i still help, but we need help to, donation help of any kind... Just my 2 cents worth..

[Denny_Rimes]

Re:Question to everyone

Hey Steve,
I read your post and all of the responses and have been sitting here for half an hour trying to figure out any suggestions for you. I think you need to look at the "basic human nature" part of your dilemma to find an answer, if there really is any good one. It has been my experience in my 43 years on this planet, that if an object (reptile in this case) holds little value for a person, then that person will not treat that object with the same care as someone that object holds a certain value for.

I do not think that it is out of line, in the least, for you to ask for a dollar amount for an animal that it is valued at. Not necessarily for you to make a profit, but certainly to cover the cost of care, shipping and so forth. If in the end you have more money than you started with you will then have the resources to take on yet another rescue. It is a very honorable thing you are doing by saving these animals from mistreatment, and if by charging a person what that animal is worth, you are actually giving that creature a better chance at being valued by its next keeper.

I used to think that some high end breeders were just greedy, until I gave it some additional thought. Though monetary gain is a part of what they do( we do live in a capitalist society), I believe that the high price they charge somehow imparts a certain VALUE to that animal in its purchaser.

If you would like to discuss the issue further, I'd be happy to share my ideas with you. I believe my e-mail address is on my profile page, please use it to contact me if you like.

You have been a great help to Kathy and me with your photographic advice and I feel as though I owe you something for it, for you see it has an actual value to me even though your advice was given freely!

~Denny

[sclark]

Re:Question to everyone

Hey all,

Wanted to give an update. Today was a crazy day. I reread all the suggestions.. Thanks so much guys and gals. I was thinking about a few of them to start with and had a concern about how legal it would be to take donation in the way of a can on a counter, sales to benifit, etc.. So I talked to my mother in law. They are good for somethings..LOL.. JK'ing..
Well she is a CPA and deals with Non-profit people all the time. Seems there is more to this then I figured. Who knew you needed more then a cert for the local giv listing you as a rescue. Seems you need to be INC to take money in. What I found stupid is that you need to pay a ton of money to get INC status and then you need to pay a ton of money to do the books to try and do nothing but help animals.. How stupid. So basicaly you need to make 8 grand to get 4 grand in cages and supplies.. Leave it to the USA Gov to make stupid rules.. Anyway. My in-law had a good suggestion. I can coast on another larger rescue's INC status and just become a sub-division of them. It would allow me to collect donations and donated supplies without chancing problems.. So I called a local animal rescue. They deal with Dogs and Cats and the ocassional farm animal and horse. I setup a meeting with them tomorrow. So wish me luck. It this works out, I can atleast try to make things work. Either way I do not plan to stop taking in rescues. I will find a way somehow. As of late I took in a ball python yestersday and a very mean Iggy today.. So the path marches on..

Thanks for all the help.. I'll keep you posted,,

Steve

[Doug]

Re:Question to everyone

hi,
Like many things nobody really understands what rescue means ,, its something you have to experience. I have seen some messed up animals and really feel for them but I can't take them in. Many animals can have hidden problems that could be extremly dangerous to the rescue owner's collection.
As fas as money , I am wondering if your could find some way to incorparate your rescue to a buisiness status and re-coop some of that loss as taxes.
You will need to average the cost expended per year and average that cost in to a re-location fee per animal to break even.
Many dog rescues do this they are not for profit but they must re-coop some losses or they will go under.
BLess you for your efforts, I am starting to believe that all exotics should be tagged with micro chips and registered at owner ship and this requires a small fee for that. And if someone dumps an animal they should be heavily fined
They have a micro chip progam in FLorida for all pets.
Doug
ps maybe this would encourage some resonsible owner ship. :P

[Gun Lover]

Re:Question to everyone

That’s good new Steve. Hope everything goes great tomorrow w/ your meeting. If you need any kind of letter of recommendation or anything of that nature let me know. I could fax you or email you something in ms word. There probably going to ask you a ton of questions like.

How long have you been doing this?
How much experience you have?
Why should we do this or help you?
How much does it cost to feed monthly, and yearly?
How much does each cage cost?
What’s the medical and/or medicine cost, and how much out of your pocket.
How do you check out the person that’s going to adopt the animal?
Would you be willing to take in an animal on a minute’s notice at anytime of the night?
Who takes care of them if you want to go on vacation or you become ill?

It sure wouldn’t hurt to take in charts, pictures of before and after. Explain to them that you’re not in this for money that you’re in this to help an animal in need, and the what if factor if you couldn’t do this anymore. Iam sure you have all this covered. But trying to think of anything and everything to help you out w/ the meeting. Also probably wouldn’t hurt to wear a tie lol. Well hope everything goes well tomorrow and keep us updated.