MISSION (NEWS 1130) — Mike Hopcraft runs The Reptile Guy Rescue and Education Centre in Mission. On December 2nd, the SPCA seized dozens of animals, including iguanas, snakes, and geckos after receiving a complaint.

Hopcraft denies the allegation of keeping animals in distress and has filed an appeal. He has until January 3rd to comply with orders to test his animals for parasites and respiratory infections, or all of them will be taken away. Hopcraft says he will do his best to meet the deadline, but it’s going to be very costly as he is currently taking care of 300 animals, not including rats which are used as a food supply.

“We’re sending a letter off to the SPCA today to let them know we are trying to comply with their orders. But we’ll get rid of this one and the week after they’ll come at us with something new. Honestly, I don’t know, I’m done. It’s just not fun anymore. I love what I do, I love working with the animals but I hate the politics that come with it.”

There have also been accusations about temperatures in the building.

“The night we surrendered the animals, I had an email from the SPCA and it said now there’s concerns about heat in the building. We had to give them our nighttime protocols for the heat in our building. I’ve been doing this for a very long time and they know damn well we know how to heat our animals. They know damn well our animals are getting heat at nighttime otherwise they wouldn’t be alive.”

The society is billing Hopcraft $10,000 for veterinary treatments and housing of the animals that were seized earlier this month. The appeal process can last two months and Hopcraft will have to pay the bill even if he wins. He’s posted a plea on Facebook, asking for donations. But at this point, he’s not even sure if he wants to continue with the centre.

“There are a lot of thoughts about what I want to do going through my mind right now. Part of me just wants to step away and let my staff run it for a while. I’ve got a great staff and a great manager but at the same time it’s not fair for me to dump it all on them. It would be nice if I could just take a break and come back to it but at the same time, I know that if I take a break I might not want to come back to it because of all the stress that comes with it. It’s ruined my personal life, it’s torn my family apart dealing with the stress.”

Hopcraft denies breeding any of the rescued animals and says the SPCA should be going after pet stores that sell exotic animals as pets.

We contacted the SPCA for comment, but had not received a call back by deadline.