It was November last year when Ruby Mcguigan saw a tortoise for sale on the website Preloved. At a price of £200, Ruby was eager to give this little reptile a home.
But, on arriving at the pick-up point, what she witnessed shocked her. The tortoise, who is now known as Fred, was sitting in a tight, dirty enclosure. There was no water in sight and food was splattered across the walls.
On closer look, Ruby also noticed that Fred had blood pouring from under her shell. Turns out, Fred had been bitten by a dog. The 18-year-old rushed the tortoise to the vets where she paid £4,000 for Fred to be built a new undershell.
Read more: Terrible conditions found at 'puppy farm' run from caravan site
While Fred has now recovered and is happily running around, November marked the start of something new for Ruby. From then onwards, she decided that she would run her own reptile sanctuary to save more exotic animals from abusive situations. She named this Ruby’s Reptiles Rescue.
However, the project that she manages alongside college has not been easy. In the past year, Ruby has grappled with the rising prices of food and electricity on top of already expensive veterinary bills.
“Luckily, I have extremely supportive parents," she said. "I run this out of their house, but I couldn’t do it if I wasn’t. But the vet bills are astronomical.
"For one of my chameleons, George, it was £50 for a vet consultation and £200 for blood tests."
Right now, Ruby’s rescue is taking care of over 20 reptiles including snakes, geckos and tortoises. She is determined to give them all a permanent home but has been struggling to do so in recent months. Ruby believes this is also connected to the cost-of-living crisis.
She said: “Nobody wants to adopt right now. Some of my animals have been here for six months. They deserve a forever home and more stability, but the cost-of-living makes it really tricky.
“Another bad thing is that I also feel a lot of pressure to take on more pets even though it’s not affordable when others are still in the rescue.”
In addition to less pet adoptions, Ruby has been receiving more threats from people who want to get rid of their animals because they cannot afford it or are simply bored.
Ruby added: “People can say that if I don’t take their animals, they will release them. Someone said to me if I didn’t take their Boa constrictor, they would throw it in the river. It forces me to take on another animal.
“Don’t impulse buy. Don’t buy something in the pet shop saying, ‘that’s so cute’, then a few weeks later change your mind. It’s taken a toll on me for sure.”
You can find out more about Ruby’s Reptile Rescue here.
