Things You Didn’t Know About the Sean Casey Animal Rescue

In a fantastic Q&A on The Awl, Sean Casey talks about the ins and outs of his animal rescue, and it’s a great look at what goes into the incredible work his team does. Among other things, he discusses rescuing while trespassing, how a Chihuahua gave him one of the few bites that sent him to the hospital, and a few details about those tortoises that you will often see hanging out inside the fence next to the E 3rd Street location:

The biggest one I have now is 80 pounds, but, at full size, he will get up to 200. We used to keep him in a dirt yard in Queens, and he dug a seven-foot-deep trench back there. Fences can’t hold them. When you have an animal like that in your house, they knock over furniture, they chew on the drywall. I had one that saw his reflection in the front of the stainless-steel stove in the kitchen, and started to fight with it. So he rammed the stove, and smashed in the whole door. You can’t train them… People need to do their research, especially with exotic animals. Ninety percent of the exotics we get are because people didn’t do their research.

I once passed by and heard the staff grumbling about them and calling them names, and now I understand why (though I had an idea after I saw what they did to a bag of dog food).

It’s a good end of the week read, and once you’re done, consider making a donation to the shelter. “They’re a big percentage of what we take in, and we definitely need more,” Sean said about donations, which can be made online here.