“There’s a fox sitting in my back garden holding an iguana in its mouth.”

That’s the sort of call the National Centre for Reptile Welfare (NCRW) can expect to field on any given day (or night).

“It is non-stop around here”, volunteer Vikki Buxton-Helyer explains to senior reporter Alex Langridge as we walk around the rescue centre, based at Hadlow College, near Tonbridge.

At the same time, facilities director Chris Newman rushes past, fielding calls from across the country as he tries to arrange the transportation of three stowaway geckos across the UK.

All the while, an Egyptian Uromastyx lizard, known as Queen Lizzie, roams around the floor.

It is very chaotic, but this is just a normal day at the rescue centre, which currently has around 700 animals in its care.

Since 2018, the NCRW in Ashes Lane, Hadlow, has rehomed more than 10,000 animals, with more than 3,100 last year.

Among those it rehomes are reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates from across the country, which have been surrendered or rescued for a variety of reasons, such as death of an owner, increased cost of care, or abuse or abandonment.

Chris started the non-profit charity in August 2018, following a conversation and a few beers at the pub with the school, where he suggested setting up a rehoming centre on the site.

His background is in animal welfare, having been involved in drafting the Animal Welfare Act and governmental working groups and animal and pet legislative reviews.

He wanted to know how and why animals were being brought into rescue centres, so he could educate and inform others about where resources needed to be spent.

Chris said he thought it would mainly be because owners were bored or children had moved out or gone to university, leaving their parents to look after their pets, which they did not want.

However, the data collected by the NCRW over the past seven years was not as he expected, with loss of interest only making up around 3% of the animals brought in.

It has been found that the top five reasons people rehome their pets are due to moving house, ill health, cost of care, not being able to provide the facilities, and centres closing down.

Whereas, the main reasons animals are rescued are due to the death of their owner, being found in the wild, abandonment, and stowaways.

Chris explained that, particularly in the summer, the NCRW mainly deals with stowaways as people accidentally bring back animals from their holidays.

The week before my visit, a volunteer had driven to Billericay, in Essex, to collect a Mediterranean house gecko, while another went to collect a Natterjack toad, which somebody had brought back in their wetsuit from Spain.

He added: “They are very common; we can get two to four calls a day about stowaways. They are usually Mediterranean house geckos that come back from Spain, Turkey or Italy.

“But we can get scorpions, spiders and snakes. We have even had a big venomous snake that was found in a warehouse, so you never know what might come.

“I always describe it as a madhouse because you absolutely have no idea what is going to happen next.

“Our emergency line operates 24/7, so we can get phone calls at two o'clock in the morning because somebody has just found something in the house, a stowaway, or maybe found a snake that has escaped.

“You just honestly never know what is going to happen from one minute to the next.”

Chris said he had the Met Police call at 3am with four baby tortoises found abandoned in a box next to a set of bins in Wimbledon, asking if they could take them in while an investigation takes place.

Once, a worker brought a snake into the centre, which he had found crammed into a small vivarium, when he was hired to turn off the utilities in a squat.

Chris explained the good Samaritan was “disgusted” at the environment, so paid the residents £20 for the animal and immediately sought the team’s help.

Other times, volunteers have helped coordinate mental health professionals to people’s homes who have reported strange sightings, or have walked the side of the M2 looking for a dead snake.

But the one call which stood out the most was when a distressed homeowner called from London as a fox was sitting in their back garden holding an iguana in its mouth, which it then dropped.

Chris told the caller, who was terrified of reptiles, to get the iguana into his house, and they would send someone to help, but the man did not know if he could.

After a few minutes, he gathered up the courage and ran to pick it up, bringing it inside, before the fox came back.

It later transpired that the fox had picked the iguana up from a house a few doors down, and the NCRW was able to reunite it with its owners on the same day.

KentOnline also previously reported how the NCRW was able to connect another iguana owner, Dean Tyrrell, with chainsaw carver Danny, who climbed a 100-foot tree in Rainham to rescue the runaway reptile.

Chris added: “We get phone calls day and night. We will never say no in an emergency.

“We have a really good network, so if we get a call and they ask us to take 50 tortoises, then we will take them.”

Manager Faydra Mitchell added: “We do not judge. If you are giving up your animal for any reason, you cannot look after it or are bored with it, you are doing the right thing by bringing it to us.

“The reptile community is a real community; it is like a family here, and we have some really good people who can help.”

However, the team explained that they are struggling to keep up with the numbers being brought in, as they took in almost 4,200 animals in 2024 alone.

Vikki said: “It is non-stop around here. Keeping the animals happy and healthy, taking care of their basic needs, takes up 99% of our time.

“People love these animals; it is no different to people with cats and dogs. You fall in love with them, so if people have to give up their pets, it is really sad. It is heart-breaking.”

Chris added: “This year and last have been really difficult as we have just seen ridiculous numbers. We are completely full.

“If it were not for the college, we could not survive. What it does [covering rent and utilities] is massive for us if we want to continue what we are doing.

“If you see anything you are unsure of, please take a picture of it on your phone, text or WhatsApp us, and we will identify it and work out a plan of action.”

A lot of the volunteers have fostered tens of animals and are struggling to take any more, with others working from 7am to 10pm to help keep the centre going.

Chris said it costs £5,000 a month to run the NCRW, and the centre relies on donations and sponsorships it has with firms like Monkfield Nutrition and Perigwin Life Foods.

The team is appealing for help as it continues to see more and more animals brought in and is asking people to donate, volunteer or sponsor an animal or enclosure.

Find out more by visiting www.ncrw.org.uk.