Snakes and lizards are not what most people picture at DOA.
Amsterdam’s best-known animal shelter, which turned 125 this year, has spent most of its long life caring for dogs and cats.
Now the city is paying it to take in reptiles when things go wrong.
The City of Amsterdam has granted DOA €11,000 for emergency reptile care in 2026, the full amount the shelter asked for, according to the city’s subsidy register.
A first for DOA
It is the first time the city has funded DOA for reptiles.
For a decade, the shelter’s city money has gone to its everyday work of looking after dogs, cats and rabbits that can no longer stay with their owners, a grant worth €911,380 this year.
DOA takes in around 2,000 animals a year.
A specialist under pressure
Reptiles used to be a specialist’s job.
In 2016 the city paid €5,000 to a reptile shelter in Zwanenburg, just west of Amsterdam, for exactly this kind of emergency help, along with public information and safety training.
That shelter has had a hard few years.
It took in a record 281 animals in a single year, stopped accepting water turtles for lack of space, and this summer a leaking washing machine in the flat upstairs flooded the building and cut the power, leaving its venomous snakes in the dark.
A growing problem
It is part of a wider problem.
Reptiles, from constrictors to venomous snakes, became popular pets during the pandemic, helped along by videos on social media, and more of them are now being given up or abandoned.
In Amsterdam, unwanted snakes have turned up dumped on the street and, in one case, in someone’s shower.
DOA’s new grant covers emergency reptile care for the rest of the year.
Sources: nhnieuws.nl, nos.nl, nltimes.nl