A Shelter for the Less Remembered Animals

A non-profit in Escondido, EcoVivarium, takes in all kinds of abandoned and injured animals, including lizards, tarantulas, anacondas and even a Galápagos turtle. Bret Burkhart and Veronica Carter visited the shelter and spoke with the founder Sandy Nowicke.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We have a segment we like to call Cogo in
the community, and we really focus in on some of
the communities around San Diego. And by now you're familiar
with the dog and cat shelters. I know we were
joking about that in Weather, but this is a serious thing.
I mean, they take in pets that have been abandoned
for whatever reason, But what about other critters such as

(00:21):
I don't know, a giant monitor lizard, a tarantula, bearded
drag it, or maybe a twenty six foot long green
and a conda.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
That's where Eco Vivarium and Escondido comes in. Sandy Nowiki
runs a nonprofit spends most of her waking hours taking
care of a variety of wild creatures that have been abandoned, injured,
or found in places they don't belong.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Little Johnny or Susie wants a lizard or a snake,
and mom and dad finally cave and buy it, and
after six months or a year, they're not so keen
on taking care of it anymore. Mom and Dad get
burnt out after maybe another year, and then they end
up coming here or they end up being released, and
we get calls about strays out on the street.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
The Sinner is open to the public so you can
see the creatures up close. We met ed the Galopa
ghosts turtle.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
She wants to crawl into your last.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
Yes, you can hear her breathing if you listen careful.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
And if I scratch her shell with my nails, because
she can feel that, she can feel that. She loves it.
We have brushes that we get the kids when they
come in, stiff brushes and they brush her shell and
she loves it. She'll just kind of go into a
coma over there.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Could you hear her breathing? Yeah, yeah, I am your father.
But the thing is is that you have to approach
her or him to the side. You can't go in
the front because then ed will perceive that as being
a threat.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Right.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
So Susan knows all these things and she spends a
lot of time working with kids so they understand the
wildlife that's part of San Diego County.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
These animals are critical. Without these ecosystems collapse. Whether it's
the frogs in the ponds helping to eat the mosquito
populations and keeping that in check, or whether it's the
lizards eating pests there, or whether it's the snakes eating vermin.
They play in essential role no matter what, and it's
presenting I guess you could say a living teacher that

(02:31):
is very out of the box with these animals to
the kids. They get really into it, and they start
learning history and culture and art and math and science
and everything through the animals perspective and the role they
play in it. And it gets them all excited about learning.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
And I would imagine they're also learning not to be
afraid of them. But you know, the old school instinct
is kill every snake.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
He's say, there's only good snakes a dead snake. It
is what I was always told. But it's like, no,
that the best snakes are the ones that are alive.
Even the rattlers play a role in the environment.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
They sure do. And if you go, you also get
to meet d the anaconda and a leg lizard named Momo.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
He had an accident so he had to have his
tail amputated. He was three feet long.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
And where did he come from? Again?

Speaker 3 (03:19):
He was found on the seventy six Freeway several years
ago by a biologist and he came to live with us.
He's actually distantly related to the alligator lizards, that we
have here, So his bite is not fun. And these
guys are almost always wild imports. They're difficult to handle.
They're not super mellow animals.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
So you and I along with my niece Tatiana, Yeah,
loved all the critters there, but probably ed the most.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
That's the sound of ad.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Just decimating a big lettuce leave.

Speaker 4 (03:52):
Yeah, as going to town on the lettuce leave and
it's got a huge shell. And I would say it's
like a it's like a piece of art Attoman, right, Yeah,
the size of an automate.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Which is just like a piece of art.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeah, it really.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
So how do you how can you help? Here's the
d Okay, they need food. They need food, so you
can donate your vegetables out of your garden.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah, it's amazing when you walk in the lobby there
there are so much lettuce sitting and so piled up.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
But they need zucchini because a lot of people grow
too much zucchini. They need all of it. So you
just donate it. And if you can't do that, you
can always give them cash.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
So is there a place we need to go for that?

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Just google Eco Vivarium Cogo in the community. Brought to
you by simper Home,