If you like wild animals, you might have seen Joe Kam somewhere on social media.

Affectionately called “Uncle Joe” by some netizens, he was recently caught in action rescuing a baby python.

As he confidently handled the stressed snake, Joe answered questions from the public and reassured them that the reptile was nothing to fear.

Why would a regular contractor bother to do any of that? Joe revealed to Mothership that he tries to dispel unfounded fears about wildlife, especially snakes, with each rescue.

“I have my fair share of handling venomous snakes and non-venomous snakes. They have one thing in common, that is to run away from you.”

He finds that the phobia around wildlife commonly labelled as “scary” quickly goes away when one actually gets to know and touch the animal – most folks are simply afraid of the unknown.

“I think people have to understand that Singapore does not have dangerous animals anymore. Which animal in Singapore will eat people? None.”

From odd jobs to an Apple employee

Before he was someone who would let a 3m-long python wrap around his arm, Joe was quite oblivious to the wild animals in Singapore, and wildlife rescue had never occurred to him as a likely career path.

“I bo tak chek (uneducated) one,” Joe plainly shared.

After dropping out of school in Secondary 3, he juggled a slew of odd jobs for most of his adolescent and adult years.

Without any qualifications to show, he worked part-time selling chicken, as a freelance surveyor, in the aircon business.

Once, he was working at a cyber cafe, and happened to speak to a regular who had just gotten a job offer from Apple.

He put his name down for a job referral half-jokingly, and when the hiring team gave him a call, he truly believed that he was getting scammed.

He had to borrow a set of formal wear from his friend to prepare for his face-to-face interview, and still believes that Apple was the “luckiest thing that ever happened” to him.

When he joined the company at 33, he found out he was the lowest ranking employee, and the only one without any qualifications.

But he didn’t mind at all, and for the next seven years, he worked in tech support.

Finding his way into animal rescue

When he came across a dazed pigeon in a car park on a random weekday, he called the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

They diverted him to Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres), which he had never heard of before, and learnt from the staff that they provided workshops for regular folks like him to learn how to rescue animals.

He jumped at the chance. Though he always had a vague interest in snakes – from watching TV documentaries and shows – he had never imagined he could actually work with them.

Over the next year, Joe volunteered “like crazy” with Acres. He loved doing it, and also quickly learnt that the organisation needed all the help it could get, both in terms of funding and manpower.

Soon, he started pulling two to three all-nighters each week, heading to Acres after work for the night rescue shift.

Apple disburses donations to charities that employees volunteer at. Back then, it was about S$34 per hour of volunteering. For his work at Acres, Apple donated a total of S$28,800. That adds up to about 847 hours, more than the number of hours in a month.

Quitting Apple

Then, a spot on Acres’ wildlife management team opened up. Joe’s experience and passion made him perfect for the role.

“I was thinking, if not now then when? I cannot wait until I’m 50, 60, save enough money – by then I can’t do anything already.

If I leave Apple, Apple can – *finger snap* – and another 10 people will come in and replace me. But if I don’t help Acres, it will be very difficult for them to find people. And not many people want to do rescue, for snakes, lizards and pigs and all these.”

So he made the decision to quit at 40.

In addition to a “huge, huge pay cut”, Joe had to move out of his HDB room in Tampines because he simply couldn’t afford rent anymore. He became one of several residents in the Acres compound.

For most, this might seem like a huge sacrifice for just a job.

But Joe seemed nonchalant about the downgrade, and cracked jokes about his stay there.

“It is fantastic. I stay in landed property leh, with so many animals! The environment is very nice.”

A win-win solution

Joe was in his element for more than four years working at Acres.

But there was a nagging realisation that there were limits to Acres’ work.

One was the budget limitations they faced, most prominently of which was the cost of petrol. In such cases, Joe took it upon himself and attended to these cases, travelling all over Singapore on his motorcycle.

Then there was a case involving a dead civet.

A homeowner had sought help from Acres as civets were going into their ceilings, and Acres provided advice on how to mesh up their premises to avoid such wildlife conflict.

However, a few weeks after contractors were hired by the owner to do the work, the owner called Joe to ask about a smell.

Joe returned, only to find that the contractors had inadvertently sealed a civet in the ceiling.

From then on, Acres tried to supervise contractors’ work more closely.

But an influx of three to five such civet cases a day made it unfeasible.

Joe felt that Acres’ position as a charity – which does work for free and cannot accept money for specific services – tied their hands in such situations.

The solution? To start his own company that can supplement Acres’ work.

Starting his own company

In mid-2021, Joe resigned from his position at Acres and started his own wildlife contractor company, JK Wildlife.

In line with Acres’ vision for wildlife coexistence, Joe does both rescues and contracting work.

For example, he meshes up homes and buildings to ensure that animals like civets and otters cannot access these areas, which is the preventative measure to minimise encounters and reduce human-wildlife conflict.

The company’s background in animal welfare and education sets them apart as they are able to handle wildlife without causing unnecessary stress to the animal, and while ensuring their safety.

Since then, JK Wildlife has expanded beyond a one-man operation.

They now have a rented office space and a few full-timers. The space is basic but has everything they need – a small gym corner, bunk beds for naps, and a pantry stocked with snacks.

A shower is also key to the space because of situations like these:

No stranger to learning on the job, Joe has settled into his role as a newly-minted business owner.

But doing his part to help animals, and clearing up common misconceptions about them, remain the favourite parts of his work.

“What I hate about my job is… that I couldn’t do more. Everybody has a limit, every organisation has a limit. but I think it would be fantastic if everybody were to gather together, we can do much much more.”

Top images via Kow Zi Shan and reeve668/TikTok.