If you鈥檝e ever seen a turtle or a bunny in the wild and thought, 鈥楾his must be a lost pet. I shall rescue it,鈥� Amber Quiring thanks you for being a kind and caring person.

But please, don鈥檛 do it.

The owner Chilliwack鈥檚 Reptile Room said they鈥檝e had far too many people bringing them animals that should be left right where they are.

鈥淭he most common ones, by far, are the red-eared sliders (turtles),鈥� Amber Quiring said. 鈥淏ecause they are so abundant in our area, people find one in a parking lot or in their yard and bring it in to us because they think it鈥檚 someone鈥檚 pet.鈥�

Alligator lizards are another one Quiring sees often.

鈥淭hey are found everywhere, up Chilliwack Mountain and down by the Fraser and Vedder rivers,鈥� she said. 鈥淧eople who think they鈥檙e helping catch these lizards, they bring them inside and they come here asking me what they need to feed them.

鈥淭hey see an Alligator lizard in the fall and they wonder why it鈥檚 just sitting there doing nothing. Well, almost all reptiles are ectothermic, meaning they move slowly in colder temperatures. So that lizard is just chilling there because it鈥檚 chilling, getting ready to hibernate.鈥�

The third one is bunnies. Wild rabbits are all over Chilliwack.

鈥淧eople see a bunch of little baby bunnies running all over their yard, and they scoop them up thinking they鈥檙e saving them,鈥� Quiring said. 鈥淏ut what鈥檚 usually happened is those bunnies have just left the nest for the first time and nobody knew a nest was there. We probably get 10 to 12 or so litters brought in to us every season.鈥�

Once a baby bunny is removed from its home, its odds of survival drop considerably. Even if it鈥檚 taken back to where it came from, it won鈥檛 be welcome.

鈥淚f we touch them, the majority of the time their mom won鈥檛 want to care for them anymore because she smells the threat on them,鈥� Quiring said. 鈥淪he鈥檒l ignore them and they鈥檒l either thrive or die.鈥�

Bringing a wild animal into a home with existing pets can also be a bad idea, particularly with lizards.

鈥淚n their natural habitat, they have natural immunity to things like E. coli and whatever else they鈥檇 be picking up from rocks and streams,鈥� Quiring said. 鈥淵ou bring this animal into your home and you鈥檙e touching it and you bring in your bearded dragon to see if they can be friends. Well now you鈥檝e just introduced E. coli or something else into your bearded dragon鈥檚 immune system and it doesn鈥檛 have immunity to bad bacteria and stuff like that.

鈥淚t might take you too long to notice to something is wrong and that animal may die.鈥�

All of that said, Quiring has a very simple rule of thumb for deciding whether to 鈥榮ave鈥� an animal.

鈥淎nimals you find in the wild should be left in the wild unless they are very clearly someone鈥檚 pet.鈥�

eric.welsh@theprogress.com
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