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You thought it would be cool to breed your iguana (or snake, or turtle), and now you've got sixteen babies to find homes for. You’ve tried selling them, and have found that there’s no market for them, or that you don’t have time to wait. You want to get them placed as soon as possible so you decide to put an ad in the paper or online. You think you'll word it like other such ads you've seen: "Adorable baby iguanas. Free to a good home."

That may be the biggest mistake of your life. Remember, you allowed these creatures to come into the world, for whatever reason. It is therefore your responsibility to make sure they are healthy and live happy lives where they are loved.

It would surprise you what free-to-a-good-home ads will bring to your door - people who sell animals for experimentation, ritual sacrifices, or worse, people who want to teach their vicious dogs how to kill a live animal. Most often, though, you’ll get well-meaning youngsters who think they want a cool reptile pet, and have convinced their parents that they will just die without one. You know the type, right? And they can appear to be the most normal, nice, kind people in the world. They want to appear that way because they know you wouldn't give them any animal if you knew what they really wanted it for. If the animal has no value to you, you will attract people for whom it is also valueless. And a lot of times, reptiles obtained by people who know little about their care can cause devastating illness due to lack of appropriate care, - or worse – they will let it loose when it becomes too much of an inconvenience.

Some people seek out the "free to a good home" ads because they cannot afford price of obtaining a reptile via a pet store. So, this means they might not be able to afford to care for it properly, either. This doesn't mean that they are bad people, or that they wouldn't dearly love your scaly friend. What it does mean is that if an emergency arises, Iggy may die because the person cannot afford a vet (or worse, because they don’t realize until it’s too late that Iggy is sick at all!).

Your job is not to fill the void in a person's life with whatever they mistakenly believe is missing from it. Your job is to find that animal the best possible home.

Some adopters will chose to charge a minimal fee for the adopted pet, in order to avoid the "free to a good home" crowd. But instead of asking for money for yourself, consider asking for a check made out to your local animal shelter, herp society, or reptile rescue. These places will appreciate those checks, the potential adopters should be happy that they are helping other homeless animals, and you can feel good that some other animals somewhere have enough to eat and a warm place to stay because of your thoughtfulness.

However you decide to do it, don't let that reptile go for “free” unless you really know the person it’s going to. Find your local herp society or reptile rescue, and see if they can help you find it a home. If not, be prepared to ask at least a minimal amount to ward of those who would just take your “cool reptile.”