This thread is batshit. Monster is a strong term that I would reserve for people who commit atrocities on others. Accepting a reward that has literally been offered, does not a monster make!
A few years back, I found a ferret in a back lane near my house. I took it home (my greyhound thought it was for her), and I shut it in the bathroom whilst I posted on FB that I had found it, then rang around vets. There is an exotic vet a 30 min walk from me. They suggested I put it in a box, and bring it to them. There was no way I could keep it until FB group admins eventually accepted my post, and people saw it with the hope that someone could collect it.
From finding ferret, to getting it to a vet took over 3 hours. I have zero ferret experience, and found out the hard way that they are escape artists, so the box it was in contained it for about 20 seconds. So whilst walking to the vets, I was wrestling with it, trying to keep a hold of it and keep it calm. I wont lie, a couple of times I felt like just letting it go.
I was very stressed (and very hot, it was during a heatwave), and my very old phone with shite signal was sending me all around the houses in terms of directions to the vets. Unfamiliar journeys are something I struggle with on my own, and despite people directing me, I kept getting lost and more stressed, all whilst this furry noodle was climbing all over me.
I got to the vets 30 minutes after they closed (a member of the public called them), I was bordering on having heat stroke when I got there.
When I eventually got home, there was a post in a FB group about a lost ferret, and some people screenshotted my post for them. Ferret was reunited with owner the following day.
Had I had been offered a reward, fuck yes I would have taken it. The critter was cute, but the whole experience cost a lot in time and my own spoons.
The real kicker is that I found the ferret in the same lane where it actually lived, so it was not far from home at all.