Our Structure

SAFEHerps is not your typical animal rescue, most of which are 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organizations. These orgs have an executive director, a board, and other structures and requirements.

By contrast, SAFEHerps is a mutual aid-style network of community members. We are nonhierarchical. We are guided by our mission, values, code of conduct, and members serving in committee positions. We do not have a physical location (although we’d like to have one in the future).

Services We Provide

The services we provide or will provide are based on the capacity and availability of exchange members. But ideally, we aim to provide the following:

• Stabilization services to help keep pets in homes with loving guardians

• Rehoming and pet swaps

• Accepting surrenders

• Fostering surrendered animals

• Facilitating adoptions

• Providing transportation

• Exchanging supplies

Why Mutual Aid?

All pet rescue is challenging and difficult to maintain both financially and emotionally. Herp rescue is all that, and so much worse, for many reasons.

Reptile care is complex. Herps have many specialized needs: for humidity, light, temps, foods that aren’t readily available like dog and cat food, etc. There’s great diversity of specialized needs: A tree frog needs something entirely different from a crested gecko from a savannah monitor. 

Reptile care is often poorly understood. Herp husbandry education is not as readily available to the public when they are considering getting a reptile/amphibian. Breeders, rescues, stores, and expos don't readily offer up-to-date practices. 

Reptiles are not as portable as mammalian pets, which means that disruption in the guardian’s life (such as loss of housing) can more quickly lead to the need to rehome pets.

Guidelines for reptile care, such as enclosure size, have been upgraded in recent years, which means the cost of setting up proper enclosures has sharply increased — and the reptile industry is still very much struggling to catch up with these new guidelines. That means many pet herps are improperly housed, and those wanting to own a reptile have to consider making a very significant investment. 

Vet care is less accessible, although Tucson is lucky to have several exotic pets. 

Reptiles do not vocalize pain like cats, dogs, or hamsters. This makes it really easy for careless and/or uninformed owners to allow their animals to sicken dangerously before dumping them. And a sick or deformed animal has a harder time making it into a good home.

Reptiles live a long time. Crested geckos can live for 20 years. Sulcata tortoises can live for 80 years. Their long lives mean they’re exposed to many more moments where rehoming must happen, due to changing circumstances in their guardian’s lives. 

Reptile rescue is expensive. Not that dog/cat rescue is easy, but at least there’s some funding available for dog/cat spay/neuter programs. We don’t spay/neuter reptiles, so there is no equivalent funding available for reptile rescue. The former executive director of the now-defuct Tucson Reptile Rescue shared that she was forced to shut down the shelter after taking on significant personal debt. SARR&E is only surviving by charging high adoption fees and severely (and unethically) cutting corners. Those with experience have testified to the financial madness of attempting to run a reptile rescue nonprofit. 

No one should sacrifice themselves by trying to address the countless harms caused by the exotic pet trade – one that brutally treats herps as commodities and people as suckers.

Traditional animal rescue in the herpetofauna space is incredibly financially challenging. But someone needs to help reptiles and amphibians. So we’re trying this model as an alternative.

Does this sound like something you want to be a part of? Sign up to become a member of SAFEHerps and start helping pet reptiles and amphibians!