We are often asked why we have a call out fee and why it has to be so much. More often than not, though, we get verbally abused over the phone or even in person when we tell people about the fee for reptile and animal relocations (Possums, etc.) That is why we have created this post to make you realise why we charge what we do. Being a Snake Catcher requires skills, experience, sound knowledge tha
t goes with ongoing learning, not to mention permits and yearly training to do what we do. The usual things a call out fee will cover is the list below;
• The annual training, which includes First Aid/ CPR and others we have to maintain, like working at heights and confined spaces.
• Liability Insurance
• Fuel (of which it now takes over $100 to fill one of our cars and $150 to fill the other, and we do that at least two to three times a week at the moment)
• Time (We can travel from anywhere to go to a call out which could include Yabulu to Alligator Creek or further, for instance)
• Equipment costs (Personal Protective Equipment, hooks, bags, etc.)
• Behind-the-scenes costs, including Vet Bills (consultations, etc) if needed
• Business Costs, including keeping our name trademarked, website running and keeping our domain names from being stolen or used without our permission. For other full-time catchers, the fee contributes to the following;
• Puts food on the table
• Pays rent or rates, mortgages, and utilities (power, gas internet, etc.)
• Puts their kids through school or kinder
• Pays for clothing
• Vehicle costs/ repairs
• In good, consistent times, it puts money into savings (for less active times of the year, or unexpected thing happen)
• And much more. For Snakefella Wildlife Rescue, it is also a contribution towards helping the wildlife we encounter. We cannot and would not charge to help local wildlife and what we can get from the fee helps us with everything from;
• Cage set ups
• Fruit & vegetables
• Meat or live insects, etc.
• formulas and supplements (Wombaroo, Crittacare, and many more)
• Fuel to get fresh cuttings and vegetation or even just to get to rescues
• Teats, bottles, and other things used for feeding
• Vet bills (Medications, treatments, etc)
• And so much more! Sometimes we do free call outs or discounted fees when we cater to the people we get calls from. We just cannot afford to do that every call. There are options available for people who can't pay the amount. We do multiple free call outs during the week for those who won’t ever afford it or as a kind gesture, but unfortunately with l the costs involved, it is not a viable option for us to do it all the time. If we don’t get the snake, we offer to come out free of charge if you find the snake again. The best part about our fee specifically, it goes towards the wildlife rescue after all the costs have been taken out of the fee. Snake catchers are a business and full timers need every cent they get and even then, $100 is cheap compared to a lot of other places in Australia. Liability Insurance protects both our catchers and resident/ employees in case something goes wrong on your property/ business. Training to be a Snake catcher can cost up to a thousand dollars depending on who you go through and refreshing that knowledge should be done at least every couple of years. Yes, we make it look easy and sometimes almost effortless. Sometimes we arrive to a callout and leave within minutes, this is only because we are professional, train and handle these animals a lot and have the knowledge to know where they may be and how to operate our individual gear in a way that makes us able to get the job done quickly but in a safe manner. Other times, we can spend 30 minutes to an hour trying to locate a snake inside a house or in a backyard. We hear comments all the time to the likes of “I wouldn’t touch a snake for a million dollars” or “I wouldn’t go near a snake if you paid me to.” Well, we do, do what you would never want to do yourself and therefore you have called a professional service to come out and do a job, just as you would a plumber, electrician or other trained professional and that includes a cost for all the things that are listed at the top of this post. Not only that, after we leave your house, the work is not complete, we then have to find a suitable location for it to be moved to and we have to drive to those locations. We all have certain ranges we go and what science tells us should be the limit on how far away we move that snake away from the home or business we have caught it from. We always try to educate each person we go to on the importance of that snake, what species it is, if it is venomous or not, and much more. We definitely are not there just for the money. When you ask questions, we love it because we love our reptiles. We are professionals and love talking about them. To put it simply, we put our lives in danger every call out we do. Australia has the top ten venomous snakes in the world and in the top twenty-five, only four are from overseas. In Townsville we have a few of the top highly venomous snakes, a few venomous ones of different degrees of venom We encounter snakes from the most venomous in the world to the least, but even a bite from a large enough python can cause ligament damage and/ or cause long-term injuries, a bite from an Eastern Brown, Coastal Taipan, or others, especially if a catcher is anaphylactic to venom can be fatal. One call out that goes wrong is all it takes to put us out of work for weeks, months, sometimes a year or more, depending on what happened and what type of venom the snake had. We are also people, and this is our chosen field of work. We don’t need to be degraded and abused for charging for what we do and for what we love doing. You wouldn’t do it to any other profession, so why hinder us and degrade us? If we could do these for free and were subsidised or paid for by the local council, government departments, etc. We definitely would not charge, but unfortunately, this is not the case. Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you for your ongoing support and helping at local business/ Wildlife rescue.
