The Urban Rescue Ranch (2024)

"Uncle" Ben Christie, better known online as The Urban Rescue Ranch (or OstrichPlug), is an American YouTuber and rancher well-known for his vlogs where he documents his life managing the titular ranch.

History[]

Ben uploaded his first video "We Saved a Bird From Drowning! (More content coming soon!)" on December 6, 2019. He has said that this video was (at the time) a placeholder for future videos. A month later, on January 8, 2020, he uploaded "The Urban Rescue Ranch (Welcome to our Channel!)", where he shows around the ranch and their goal to rescue animals. This video, along with a few other old videos, were removed from the channel (or set private) in August 2023.

The ranch was previously located in Austin, Texas, but was moved to Waco in late 2021. The channel hit 1 million subscribers on April 2022^[1], 2 million subscribers in October that same year^[2] and 3 million subscribers in June 2024.

In 2022 and 2023 there were several collaborations with other Youtubers, such as TommyInnit, Wilbur Soot, Paul Cuffaro and WhistlinDiesel. Ben jokingly refers to these visitors as interns.

Prominent animals[]

Kevin[]

Kevin, being the most prominent animal on the Rescue Ranch, is a male rhea who is otherwise known to attack most creatures (mostly Ben) when they enter his presence, no matter the circ*mstances. He currently lives with a female rhea named Karen (which Kevin is married to).

Karen[]

Karen is a female rhea, who unlike Kevin, is very friendly, with little to no bites. Ben often feeds Karen sausages (or glizzies as he calls them) when in her presence. It is often conflictingly said that Karen is either Ben's or Kevin's wife.

DaBaby[]

DaBaby (formerly known as Doorknob) is a kangaroo, named after the famous American rapper. Ben is known to shout the famous quote (see above) when he sees the kangaroo. DaBaby is often seen relaxing in the ranch. DaBaby has a wife named Billie Eyelash (a pun of the name Billie Eilish) who as of December 2023 is very pregnant with a baby.

Poggers[]

Poggers is a dog who is known to guard the Rescue Ranch from predators. Since October 2021, he is sometimes seen with another dog named Queen.

Big Ounce[]

Big Ounce was a prairie dog who was taken to the ranch in early 2022. He hung out in Ben's house once for a while. A running gag on the channel was that when Ben pets Big Ounce and goes to sleep (or at least goes into a comatose state), the former will mourn the "death" of the prairie dog. As of November 18th 2023, Big Ounce has been revealed to have actually died due to an unreleased cause.

Gort and Quandale Dingle[]

Gort and Quandale Dingle are capybaras who were taken to the rescue ranch on June 2022. Both of them can be distinguished by their face, with Quandale Dingle having a big black spot. During their early appearances, Ben would often sing Don Toliver's After Party when in the presence of the capybaras, but due to copyright claims, he stopped singing it though continues to use it in his TikTok videos. Gort is a female and Quandale is a male.

Patrick Bateman[]

Patrick Bateman is a juvenile black buck antelope that was taken to the rescue ranch in early April 2023 after he was supposedly abandoned by his mother in a trailer. He has small horns on his head and formerly a broken ankle.

Quotes[]

• "Good morning everybody!" (often said in the beginning of his video)
• "Oh, don't mind if I do!"
• "Woah, is that hit rapper and artist DaBaby?!" (said when Ben enters the kangaroo's presence)
• "cappy blappies" (what Ben calls capybaras)
• "Well, well, well, look who we have here..."
• "Woah hey, is that Kevin?" (often said by Ben when Kevin runs to him)
• "Oh, Almost forgot to tell ya- AAAAAAAA-" (said by Ben at the end of his videos)
• "Today, we are going to feed a British "person" to my prairie dog!" (Ben in a collaboration with YouTuber TommyInnit)
• "If we don't feed Big Ounce an entire (something) hes gonna die!"

References[]