Wow. I believe you need some practice at seeing the "big picture", my friend.
I operated a reptile rescue in south Texas for 4 years in the late 80's, and now I'm contemplating another. I feel like an idiot for contemplating another, but..I am.
If you go to the local dog pound to "adopt" a new dog, you pay a fee, right? Yet this dog was picked up off of the street, or rescued from an abusive home, etc. Not bred or paid for by the pound. The entity that operates the pound, whether it's municipal, county, or private, isn't in the business to make money- I guarantee it. They lose their butts, every year. Ask them.
Yet this is a service that is very necessary, wouldn't you agree? We need organizations to take in our abandoned pets, no matter what type of animals they are.
So it comes down to this- without the fees to offset the expenses involved in rescuing animals, they couldn't afford to operate- and they'd disappear.
I fly for an airline, and my wife is a school teacher- we do pretty well. However, the cost of building the facility we're contemplating now- 100 acres and a series of enclosures capable of handling large reptiles (a current and ongoing problem) and then the cost of maintaining this facility and the animals we take in- would break us. Besides the other - very good- reasons others have mentioned, the animals that are not placeable need to be taken care of for their entire lives. (Ever tried to place a 25 foot Retic or an 18 foot Burm or a 6 foot Nile monitor? Not gonna happen.)
We're going to do this because we love the animals, we have specific knowledge of them...and because we're embarassed by all of the idiots out there who buy a hatchling Burm with the intention of keepin it in a 30 gallon aquarium next to their bed for it's entire life. Asking a reasonable fee (nowhere near the retail price of the animal) offsets costs, helps insure competent and serious adoptions, and allows us to continue the work in general. We'll never make the investment back, or even break even month-to-month.
And frankly, this fee helps us to keep people with your attitude from ever adopting one of our animals.

See? It works.

James

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