Lucinda Herbert takes a look inside Hugo's Small Animal Sanctuary - where she meets monkeys, skunks and a porcupine.
Bailey Lister opened his small rescue shelter after he rescued a rat by hiding him in his school bag as a teenager - and now takes in everything from tarantulas, snakes and skunks - to cats and guinea pigs.
But he warns that many of the more exotic animals don't make good pets, and that he's seen a rise in people taking on unusual breeds that they've seen on Tik-Tok without doing their research.
Bailey Lister opened his small rescue shelter after he rescued a rat by hiding him in his school bag as a teenager - and now takes in everything from tarantulas, snakes and skunks - to cats and guinea pigs.
But he warns that many of the more exotic animals don't make good pets, and that he's seen a rise in people taking on unusual breeds that they've seen on Tik-Tok without doing their research.
Category
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00So I started Hugo's in 2018 after I rescued a rat.
00:06I hand-reared Hugo and he lived in my school bag.
00:09Probably shouldn't have done, but he lived in my school bag because I hand-reared him
00:14and he came everywhere with me.
00:16And when he got to a good age of about three and he had a growth on his brain
00:20which sent him a little bit neurological, he was struggling to do the basic things,
00:24it was in his best interest to be put to sleep.
00:27His quality of life had declined dramatically, so unfortunately it was the best thing for him.
00:32And it made me realise I helped Hugo.
00:35Hugo was a couple of hours old when he came to me.
00:37If I could help him, there were so many more other animals I could help.
00:40We help everything from birds of prey like Luna here,
00:43all the way to invertebrates, tarantulas, skunks, monkeys.
00:51We're now home to two porcupines, rabbits, guinea pigs and everything in between.
00:56So how do some of these animals end up in your care?
01:00A lot of the time it's through the illegal pet trade
01:04and people breeding them for big, big bucks like the marmosets.
01:08When a baby marmoset is born, it should stay with its parents for about five years.
01:13They can naturally teach it everything on how to be a marmoset,
01:17but unfortunately people know they can make big money from this.
01:20So when these babies are just a couple of days old,
01:22they'll get ripped away from the parents and hand-reared.
01:24It sounds cute, it sounds adorable, but then they reach sexual maturity
01:30and they're like sex-driven, horrible teenagers thrashing around your house.
01:34You don't want them because they become bitey, aggressive.
01:37They scent everywhere, so they'll wee all over your house.
01:40It's not nice and it's not good for them neither.
01:43They are very social animals, so they do need their own kind to be around.
01:47TikTok, Instagram, Facebook can be very deceiving.
01:50We had a skunk come to us.
01:53They had her about two weeks and they asked if we'd take her
01:56because they bought her for the daughter, but she wasn't like the one on TikTok.
02:00So I assume this one was cuddly, friendly, maybe like a one-off.
02:05But flower bless her, she's not like that.
02:07She's very reserved.
02:08She's more your typical skunk.
02:09She snatches food.
02:11She doesn't want to be near you.
02:13She wants to keep herself to herself with the other skunks.
02:16And that's how they are generally.
02:18They're not often cuddly.
02:20People will do anything to get that extra view or that extra like.
02:23And if it means that a marmoset is on the front cover of that video,
02:26they don't care as long as they're going to get that extra like.
02:29What I can't...
02:29People will often tell you they've rescued this exotic animal.
02:33If you're giving somebody money to purchase this exotic animal,
02:36you're not rescuing it, unfortunately.
02:38You're just feeding the need and the demand for them.
02:41So if you do see an animal, primarily an exotic animal, in need,
02:46contact your local authorities, your local sanctuary,
02:49your local rescue and see how they can help.
02:51Go down the right route.
02:52Don't purchase that animal as hard as it might be not to,
02:55to get it out of that situation.
02:57Luna is part of the Hugos family.
02:59She'll be with us forever.
03:02We always like to joke and say it's a very dysfunctional family.
03:08But we love them. We do.
03:10But it's very important to love them and respect them.
03:14But when an animal comes in and it's had such a rubbish life,
03:19and after a couple of weeks, you start to see them improve
03:21because they're on the correct diet.
03:23They've got the correct environment.
03:25They're able to express those natural behaviour patterns
03:28that they weren't able to do before.
03:30That's the most rewarding part for me.