Animal rescue to take in unique family pets in Kenosha County occasion

The 2nd yearly Exotic Animal “Surrender” collaborated by the Neenah-based J&R Aquatic Animal Rescue,will be midday to 3 p.m., Saturday, July 15 at the Pringle Nature Center, 9800 160th Ave.

The occasion is among 18 occurring throughout the state this year, an effort that will be broadening to 29 websites next year, according to J&R Director John Moyles. The rescue service accepts unique animals and assists take care of them up until they are all set to be embraced or launched to a wildlife sanctuary.

Moyles said anybody can bring an unique animal they feel they can no longer take care of, for whatever factor, without any concerns asked.

He said sometimes animal owners are quiting animals since of substantial modifications in their lives.

“People may move from one place to another where they can’t have pets. Sometimes someone will get sick or lose a job,” he said. “Someone will get a job and they’re not home as much anymore.

“That’s 90% of the reason that people get rid of pets,” Moyles said. “Other times they could lose interest or we get animals that are sick and then they can’t afford the vet treatment.”

Moyles said frequently when the animals are given up there are combined feelings, for both the owner and his own staff. They’re understanding to individuals who need to quit their family pets.

“You’re happy you get to help and it’s always neat to work with a new animal, but you’re sad that the person is in this situation where they need the help,” he said. “We’re just so fortunate we’re in a position where we can help.”

Moyles said started animal surrender occasions after talking with Tim Campbell, a marine intrusive types outreach expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with the Wisconsin Sea Grant Advisory Services program.

“We were brainstorming ideas to help people who had pets that they didn’t want because we found that–  when people didn’t have a resource for their unwanted pets —  they would just let it go,” said Moyles.

An animal owner with a turtle, for instance, would discover a neighboring pond that had other turtles, believing their animal would be at home with them.

“People don’t realize that they’re different turtles. The turtle that they get from the pet store might not do so well in the harsh winters here,” he said. “Or, they might do really well and become an invasive species. So, that’s why we do these events.”

Moyles, who has worked in the pet industry since the mid-1990s, first began taking in exotic animals in 2016 in partnership with the Green Bay Aquarium Society. In February of 2020, he started J&R a month before the pandemic, and the group held six surrender events. The next year, it doubled.

“Since then, we’ve been consistently adding events to our calendar … we have 18 this year,” he said. Next year he prepares to hold one every other week with extra occasions throughout Earth Week and in June.

Moyles said the rescue program accepts almost every sort of animal that isn’t a common domesticated breed, such as a cat or dog, or farming animals.

Most of the unique family pets accepted consist of fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds in addition to smaller sized mammals, such as, mice, rats, gerbils, hedgehogs, chinchillas and guinea pigs, to name a few. He’ll even take in the periodic bunny “if we have room for them,” he said.

His animal rescue doesn’t take cats and dogs since a lot of regional gentle societies are already geared up to manage them, whereas unique family pets frequently require more customized care, he said.

Since he began his service, J&R has actually rescued more than 4,000 unique animal types. It is likewise among the couple of saves that are certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

During in 2015’s animal surrender in Bristol, the service took in 37 animals to re-home. The service averages about 36 saves per occasion.

Moyles said they will take animal bugs too. (Madagascar cockroaches, anybody?)

He said his staff works relentlessly to put them in “appropriate and permanent loving homes.”

Those houses can either be with people or in sanctuaries, depending upon the animal.

“Every animal that comes in, we find a home for. So, it may or may not be adoptable by the general public, but, for the most part, we do find homes for everything that comes to us,” he said.

When Moyles opened his rescue, it was simply a month prior to the state had actually closed down all however the necessary services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The pandemic left numerous family pets, unique and otherwise, abandoned or without houses, said Moyles. Some owners would surrender their family pets thinking their disease would be short-term and when they recuperated, they would be reunited.

“We found more people that were, unfortunately, passing away in the pandemic, and then we would take the animal in,” he said. Moyles said it’s still prematurely to inform whether the pandemic caused an uptick in gave up family pets on his end.

“The animals that we deal with are typically really short lived or really long lived,” he said. For example, much of the fish he gets live however a couple of years.

“On the other hand, we have turtles and birds, some which live 80 years, if not more,” he said. “We just re-homed an African gray (parrot) that was hatched in 1980. He’s a year younger than me. He’s, like me, in his prime. We have another 40 years to go.”

Perhaps the most uncommon animal to come into his care has actually been a Malaysian Giant Turtle, a seriously threatened types according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

“Last year we got a call from somebody who had this turtle, which I thought was maybe a misidentification because that happens,” he said. “It turned out to be the real deal.”

It was likewise a child with a shell that determined 18-inches in size.

“I had to call zoos to figure things out, making sure I was feeding it the right thing and that the habitat was set up correctly,” he said. “We wanted to send it to a sanctuary in Florida.”

The rescue has actually likewise taken in its reasonable share of alligators. He has at least 2 on the properties.

“Right now, we have an alligator. An American alligator and a Dwarf Caiman, which is a relative to the alligator,” he said. “You know, I get alligators all the time. I wish that we were talking rare, but it’s not.”