Raphael Talisman/The Star
Echo Uzzo holds her bearded dragon at her home in Bowie. The animal is one of more than 50 that Uzzo owns.
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Be they soft and fluffy bunnies, scaly hognose snakes or hissing Madagascar cockroaches, Echo Uzzo loves all her animals equally. Her appreciation for them is evident as she gently scoops them up and comfortably handles them, even the roaches.
These are just some of the more than 50 critters the Bowie resident brings to schools and adult educations centers, where she hopes to inspire others to have the same kind of appreciation for all animals.
Uzzo, who originally wanted to be a veterinarian, founded the outreach program Echoes of Nature in 2002 after working as an educator at the Baltimore Zoo. Although programs and resources were readily available at the zoo, Uzzo said she didn't see many children from the Bowie area using them and wanted to be able to bring animal education to them.
She now runs the programs full time and houses her more than 50 animals in wire cages and glass aquariums in the garage attached to her home. She jokes that her friends' children see a visit to her home as the ultimate field trip, but with animals ranging from African millipedes to ferrets to bearded dragons it is not hard to see why.
Many of the animals she owns require exotic animal permits and were adopted from area shelters and come with peculiar stories.
"The scorpions are offspring of adults we fostered during a Montgomery County confiscation," said Uzzo, who obtained them through an animal rescue group she volunteers with. "While they were here, the female gave birth and I kept some of those."
Others, like a ball python, most likely escaped from an improperly secured cage.
In addition to bringing children closer to animals, Uzzo said her business is able to give the animals a purpose.
"These animals have a second chance on life," she said. "They are not sitting in a shelter or doomed to not be able to survive out in [the wild]."
Dana Miller, director of the Upper Marlboro day care Little Smiling Faces, hires Uzzo to conduct programs about five times a school year.
"The children just love her and they know her by name," Miller said of the two to 5-year-olds at the day care. "They love the fact they can actually touch the animals."
Uzzo and her husband, Mike Uzzo, have also enlisted several employees to both help take care of the animals and work as educators. While she did not provide a cost estimate for the care of her animals, Uzzo said maintenance for more than 50 mammals, reptiles and insects can be a complicated procedure. Mammals have to be fed daily while reptiles have rotating schedules that are clearly marked on the sides of their enclosures. Turtles are let out in pens in the backyard for sun during the warm months but brought back inside as the weather cools.
"We can't just suddenly decide we are going to go away for the weekend," Uzzo said.
Uzzo estimates she holds one or two seminars a day during high season months. When she isn't caring for or showing off the animals she said she's usually doing paperwork or designing new education programs. A hit program this summer was "Dancing with the Animal Stars," which showcased the dance-like movements of several animals, including ferrets. Programs range in length and price but start at approximately $130 for a 45-minute session.
