About

Urban Rescue Ranch, also known as OstrichPlug, is a TikTok and YouTube vlog series run by YouTuber and rancher Ben "Uncle Ben" Chrisite in which he documents his life managing his ranch. In the series, Uncle Ben interacts with animals on his ranch, including his aggressive rhea Kevin, his kangaroo DaBaby and his dog Poggers.

Online History

On November 28th, 2019, Ben "Uncle Ben" Christie launched the TikTok^[1] account @ostrichplug, posting videos of himself interacting with animals held at his rescue farm in his backyard. The first video,^[2] in which the TikToker shows his three baby ostriches, gained over 85,000 views in three years (shown below).

On December 6th, 2019, Christie launched The Urban Rescue Ranch YouTube^[3] channel (first video^[4] shown below, left). On January 7th, 2020, Christie posted an introductory video^[5] titled, "The Urban Rescue Ranch (Welcome to our Channel!)" in which he presented his farm and his rescue animals, including an opossum named Pickles, as well as rabbits, chickens and cats.

On December 12th, 2019, Christie posted his first TikTok^[6] clip to gain over one million views, a video of two feral hog piglets (seen below).

On March 24th, 2021, and February 18th, 2022, Christie posted the two highest viewed videos on his YouTube^[7][8] channel, "How To Survive A Rhea Attack (training Kevin p1)" and "How to Fight a Kangaroo," starring his aggressive rescue rhea Kevin and his rescue kangaroo DaBaby, named after the rapper. The videos accumulated over 7 million views and 22 million views, respectively (shown below, left and right).

Many of the animals residing at the farm were named by Christie after meme characters and internet celebrities. As of July 2022, animal residents at Christie's rescue ranch include:^[9]

• DaBaby (Kangaroo)
• Kevin (Rhea)
• Karen (Rhea)
• Big Ounce (Prairie Dog)
• Poggers (Dog)
• Nacho (Pig)
• Poppy (Opossum)
• Quandale Dingle (Capybara)

Criticisms

On June 1st, 2021, Christie posted a joking apology video^[10] in which he addressed accusations of abuse against his rhea Kevin made by some users in comments (shown below). In the video, Christie stated that hitting the rhea was necessary corrective behavior when handling aggressive animals.

Personal Life

Before managing his rescue ranch full-time, Ben Christie worked at Oracle as a sales rep.^[11]

According to Christie, the idea to start up the ranch came from a joke with his college roommate who had a puppy that "would poop in his closet every day," which made Christie jest that he could get a whole farm of animals who would "poop less than this puppy." He bought his first six chickens and two ducklings while still at college.

As of June 9th, 2022, Christie was 25 years old.

Search Interest

External References