Graham Martin runs a small reptile rescue in Bracknell as well as an aquatics business. His rescue is a real labour of love that sprung up because as an ‘expert’, word got round that he could take in unwanted creatures. Now as well as his own reptilian pets, he has scores of scaly animals and amphibians that were rescued or need a home.
 | | Graham Martin and a Bearded Dragon |
Most pets end up at Graham’s because of a variety of incidents. Says Graham: “A bloke rings me up and says ‘I’ve got this baby green iguana, I bought it for my girlfriend as a Valentine’s present and she lobbed it across the room at me’.
"He could have given chocolates, roses or romantic dinner for two – but no, here’s a little lizard! It was a loony when I got it. You couldn’t pick it up or anything, I had to get hold of it and take it out the tank maybe once or twice a day for half an hour and sit with it and get it used to people again.
"Eventually it was okay, it would eat out of your hand and would come up and sit on your shoulder. In the end I found him a good home.” Graham get lots of calls from people who like the idea of owning a reptile but are unaware of how to keep one. “You’ve got to have all the specialist equipment, lights, you got to have the right heating, and give them the right diet", he says, adding, "someone went off to college a couple of months ago and left their poor elderly mother with this snake, and all she used to do with it was open the top, throw this mouse in, and ran away cos basically she couldn’t bear to look at this snake eat it.”
The snake ended up at Graham’s as the lady couldn’t handle the pet – furthermore it wasn’t let out of the tank to roam around and the temperature was too cold.
A bearded dragon and a blue-tongued skink were handed to him after their owner had to move house. He has also a dab lizard, an elderly chameleon, two scorpions, two tarantulas and two snakes. What he has most of though are turtles. Graham said: “The turtles live around 50 years – that’s why I end up with them because people go ‘right, little Johnny, there’s for your fifth birthday a turtle’, then little Johnny’s girlfriend at the age of 20 says ‘no I can’t have that at my house - take it away’.” Graham takes them in, pairs them up and tries to find them suitable homes.
He also has a black lizard, a species of skink, which is probably the only one of its kind in the country when it was accidentally imported from New Zealand. | "A bloke rings me up and says ‘I’ve got this baby green iguana, I bought it for my girlfriend as a Valentine’s present...' " | |
Graham travels up and down the county collecting unwanted reptiles, he then places them in quarantine for a month to gauge their temperament and check their health. When they’re ready for rehoming, Graham overcomes the issue of potential owners not having the proper equipment for a particular reptile or amphibian by selling it to them – this ensures the centre is self-funded as well as relying on donations. “We generally make a set-up that I know is right for that animal, your strip lights, your heaters, whatever that particular animal needs. Snakes are completely different from lizards, turtles are different again - whether they live in trees so it needs a higher tank or whether it lives under the ground, in which case it needs something to bury in, I make money back to look after anything else.”
Click on the right-hand links to see the photos of some of Graham's rescued pets.
If you would like to make a donation, want to home a reptile, amphibian, fish or invertebrate, or need to rehome your pet, contact: graham@aaaaquatics.com.
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