Daily Reptile News

Exotic-animal owners, sellers fear for future

Selling boa constrictors and pythons is Tim Koppenhofer’s lifeblood.

But if Gov. Ted Strickland issues an executive order to ban the sale and possession of exotic pets in Ohio, Koppenhofer’s business could run as cold as the blood of his prized snakes.

Koppenhofer, who with his wife, Susan, owns Special K Reptiles, has had to rely on his hobby to make ends meet for the past six months after losing his job at an insurance company.

Reptile business owners wouldn’t be the only ones hurt, he said.

Companies selling heat lamps, aquariums and rodents used for food also would face an immediate drop in revenue.

“If this forces me out of business, I’ll move out of the state,” said Koppenhofer, 57, of Madison. “I would stay close because I have family here.”

He said Michigan and Indiana are potential landing spots.

During the All-Ohio Reptile Show yesterday at the Moose Family Center on Demorest Road, Koppenhofer was one of several exotic-pet dealers thinking about the potential fallout from

a ban on their business.

A promise to issue the order was part of a three-way deal among Strickland, the Humane Society of the United States and the Ohio Farm Bureau. The deal prevents a proposed constitutional amendment on farm and animal-care reforms from reaching the November ballot.

MT Schwartz, show spokeswoman and owner of Saffire Dragons in Powell, said the long-running show either would move or stop completely if the order takes effect. The show began in 1988.

Elayne Bruckman, co-owner of Bruckman Reptiles in Ligonier, Pa., said her yearly profits would be chopped in half if she

can’t make stops in Ohio.

Bruckman, who was laid off from her job at an insurance company recently, said the business is her family’s sole income.

“In this economy, we need more jobs, not regulation and restriction,”

said Bruckman, 54. People who already own exotic

pets would be able to keep their animals, but they wouldn’t be allowed to breed them or buy more.

That would leave Urbana snake dealer Jeff Crabtree stuck with a gang of boas and pythons at his house.

“They’re trying to take our freedom,” said Crabtree, 53.

Schwartz pointed out several children checking out the assortment of snakes, bearded dragon lizards, geckos and turtles.

If reptile shows like this one become extinct, youngsters would lose educational opportunities, she said.

Schwartz let children

feed and pet her rhino

iguana Sandy.

“That is heaven to

me,” said Schwartz as

she talked about the curious youngsters. “This is the

way to get them to appreciate nature.”

Gator Cleans Up Dead Fish At Dam Break in AZ

And finally tonight.Earlier this week a section of a dam at the Tempe Town Lake in Arizona collapsed, sending about a billion gallons of water into a normally dry river.The loss of the water means there are a lot of dead fish laying around….And that had city officials trying to figure out how to clean up that mess in desert heat.So, the idea was born to bring in an alligator and let that gator do what it does best… eat!City officials have hired a crew to scoop up fish and those fish will be fed to the six-foot reptile.

Snake worshippers press council for puthu shrines

Snake worship is an ancient practice among certain Hindus who worship the snake goddess Nagamma.

Trevor Moodley, 61, of Brookdale has already erected a temporary structure around a puthu on a piece of vacant land, with financial help from community members.

“Worshippers in the community have assisted with donations to erect a steel structure. We had a prayer at the site last Sunday. We want the municipality to give the land to us or lease it so that we can build a solid structure. We will then maintain the land,” he said.

He said he had approached local councillors to help obtain permission to lease the land, but without success.

Puthus have been set up illegally on vacant land, at roadsides and on verges throughout Durban, where worshippers have used saris to adorn “holy ground” and make offerings of fruit and milk.

A Democratic Alliance member of the provincial legislature, George Mari, said religious leaders needed to motivate the legitimacy of the snake pits as holy ground for the council to make a ruling.

“There is a need for the council to come up with a policy, as the community is saying it has religious significance,” he said.

He said councillors were not able to give permission for structures to be erected around snake pits.

He added that the community should not build the illegal structures and then become angry when the council removed them.

Ashwin Trikamjee, the SA Hindu Maha Sabha president, said puthus were regarded as holy. “In instances where they can be accommodated, the municipality must consider and be flexible, but obviously they can’t do it everywhere, as it is not practical and may have an impact on traffic,” he said.

Council spokesman Thabo Mofokeng did not respond to enquiries.

Raoul Moat’s snake killed girlfriend’s chinchilla

Shotgun killer Raoul Moat poses menacingly with a 12ft-long python wrapped round his neck.

Moat, who had an obsession with reptiles and had a huge dragon tattoo on his chest, kept two of the huge snakes in the tiny one-bedroom flat he shared with the mother of his eldest daughter.

He fed them frozen rats which he’d warm up in a microwave oven. The picture was taken by a pal just before Moat, 37, met girlfriend ­Samantha Stobbart, 22, who he went on to shoot at the start of his gun rampage three weeks ago. It showed musclebound Moat – at the height of his steroid abuse and weighing a hulking 19stone – proudly ­gripping the python by its neck.

He kept the snakes in aquariums, but loved to handle them and even let them loose to slither round the living room of the flat he shared with ­Marissa Reid.

One killed the pet chinchilla of then-­girlfriend ­Marissa, 32. But rather than tell her, Moat put the animal back in its cage for ­Marissa to discover it dead four days later.

A friend said: “Raoul has always loved snakes. He had two – one normal python and a rare albino one with pink eyes. He also had smaller ones, and lizards as well.

“He would always let his snakes out of their aquariums and they’d have the run of the flat. They’d even climb up the curtains, which was a bit unnerving.

“He had little snakes which he also kept in the same aquarium and they’d just slither around over the big ones.

“Raoul genuinely loved those snakes – but they absolutely stank. When you went round the flat he’d have all the windows open and the place would still stink.

“It got to the point that people didn’t want to go round because the smell was so bad. The fact he fed them rats which he had to warm up in the microwave didn’t help either. When he met Sam he gave the snakes up, but he still had a ­fascination with them. He even had a walking stick with a serpent’s head as the handle.

“He also used to breed husky dogs –I think he just liked ­anything that was really powerful, because he felt they were like him.

“And he had an aquarium for fish and terrapins. For a while, he even had a couple of piranhas. He loved them because they were ­dangerous.

“He was a bit like a big kid. His mum and step-dad didn’t let him keep many pets, other than one miniature dragon lizard, so when he had his own place he pretty much turned it into a zoo.”

5 Things PETCO Doesn’t Want You To Know

PETCO may put on an animal-friendly façade by not selling dogs and cats—which is a responsible decision considering the dog and cat overpopulation problem—but the company is in business to make money, not for love of animals. Here are five things you should know before choosing to shop at PETCO:

1. Undercover Investigators Have Documented Neglect, Abuse, and Deplorable Conditions at PETCO’s Suppliers: The birds, reptiles, and other small animals that PETCO sells come from breeding mills and animal dealers that typically warehouse animals in crude, filthy conditions without adequate veterinary care or food or water.

An investigator from PETA recently went undercover at Sun Pet Ltd, an Atlanta-based wholesale animal dealer that supplies animals to PETCO, PetSmart, and pet stores. According to the investigator, hundreds of birds, rabbits, guinea pigs, gerbils, mice, and rats were suffering in Sun Pet’s enormous warehouses. The animals were treated as mere merchandise and some were killed in cruel, violent ways. One Sun Pet worker even put live hamsters into a bag and bashed the bag against a table to kill the hamsters.

Sun Pet not only purchased animals from unlicensed dealers, but from the now-defunct U.S. Global Exotics (USGE), the Texas-based warehouse that imported and exported hundreds of thousands of animals a year for eventual sale at pet stores, including PETCO. More than 26,000 neglected exotic animals were seized from USGE following another PETA investigation. (Shamelessly, PETCO even tried to profit off of these animals after they were confiscated.)

2. Sick and Injured Animals Have Allegedly Been Left to Languish in PETCO Stores: Through the years, PETA has received countless calls, letters, and e-mails from PETCO customers and employees who are concerned about animals at PETCO. Some customers claim to have seen live rats and mice lying next to dead ones in feces-covered cages, sick birds, and dead geckos, snakes, and other reptiles, as well as animals left with no food or water for days. A whistleblower at a Houston store revealed that employees there were not trained how to hand feed birds and, as a result, many were injured or died.

Sick and dying animals at many PETCO stores are allegedly not seen by a veterinarian. (Several former employees have even claimed that they were “not allowed” to take animals to the veterinarian.) A “Team Leader” at an undisclosed PETCO location, told PETA, “If an animal is dead or on the brink of it in our store, we are supposed to put them in a holding tank until they do die.”

3. PETCO Paid $1.75 Million to Settle a Lawsuit Over its Animal Care Record and Shady Consumer Practices: Four California counties filed a lawsuit against PETCO, alleging that PETCO failed to notice or treat sick animals, and that it overcharged its customers as well. The company shelled out $1.75 million to settle the suit.

In 2004, PETCO paid more than $850,000 to settle similar charges and was ordered by the court to implement a detailed daily animal care procedure in all its California stores.

After the San Francisco Animal Care and Control found dying and dead birds, a dead turtle molding and left to rot, dehydrated and lethargic iguanas, and a toad “cooked to death” at bay area stores, the city attorney of San Francisco said, “PETCO has proven that it is not capable of caring for the animals it sells in a humane manner. If they can’t treat living things with care and consideration, they sure shouldn’t be in the business of selling pets.”

4. PETCO Has Also Been Sued For Negligent Grooming Practices: A Utah resident sued PETCO for negligence and loss of companionship when her dog was hanged to death from a leash at a PETCO store after employees left the dog unattended and she attempted to jump out of a grooming tub. PETCO’s attorneys argued that damages, if any, should be limited to the dog’s “fair market value,” a position that seems to contrast poorly with PETCO’s claim that it understands that animals are “members of the family.”

5. U.S. Marshalls Confiscated Contaminated Pet Food from PETCO’s Food-Distribution Center: In June 2008, U.S. Marshalls seized pet food from PETCO’s distribution center in Illinois because the FDA suspected it had been contaminated by rodents and other animals. People who purchased pet food from PETCO stores in 16 states were instructed to wash the cans and their hands with soap and water. The food didn’t cause any illnesses that I’m aware of, but the situation did make me wonder: If the company couldn’t even keep food clean and safe, how could it be trusted with living beings”.

I might be willing to “give PETCO another chance” with regard to that last one if the company stopped selling birds, reptiles, and other small animals. PETCO could still make money and meet the needs of people with companion animals—PETA members included—if it sold only food, toys, and other supplies—not animals. Until then, PETCO is one place not to go if you care about animals.

Heather Moore is a research specialist for the PETA Foundation.

Gecko thief was on work programme

Hey hey hey – Fat Albert got stolen by a teenager who was on a work programme for previous criminal offending.

Investigations are continuing into whether Justin Howes, 19, has links to gecko smugglers after he stole 23 reptiles from two tourist attractions.

Among the stolen geckos was Northland’s famous Fat Albert, known as the “gecko who ate all the flies” to out-grow his mates.

The burglaries have earned Howes six months in prison and left the Department of Corrections red-faced. Fat Albert and the other geckos were recovered when police raided Howes’ home and found a professionally built compound for the reptiles.

Howes was placed at the Whangarei Museum and Kiwi House for community work after being convicted of previous crimes. It is unknown what he was convicted of or how long his sentence was.

But Howes worked out how to beat the popular attraction’s security system. The theft took place late last month, the day after Howes burgled the Ti Point Reptile Park at Leigh near Warkworth, north of Auckland.

A Department of Corrections spokesman confirmed that Howes had been placed at the Kiwi House to do community work.

Museum director Sue Walters said Howes showed “an awful lot of interest” in the way the attraction operated.

Howes was able to study the security system and staff movements. He had also found geckos in quarantine in an area of the park “that very few people knew were there”.

Walters said: “We have a lot of relations with the Corrections Department. We have acres of grass that need to be mowed.”

The museum had boosted security after a previous burglary, and an increased awareness of the high value foreign reptile collectors placed on New Zealand geckos. It had a top security system and even has a live-in caretaker.

New Zealand geckos are highly sought after abroad – three European men were sent to prison earlier this year for smuggling the reptiles after being caught with about 30 geckos. The haul was valued in excess of $200,000.

Walter said she did not know if Howes was operating alone but was told that he had kept the geckos in a homemade enclosure that displayed “significant carpentry”. “The cages were very well made.”

Ti Point owner Ivan Borich said it was believed that Howes had visited the park as a visitor and used the opportunity to study security. “He knew enough to get around the system.”

Alligator Surprise: Look At This

MIDDLEBOROUGH, Mass. —

State police said a local man dropped off an alligator in a bait bucket on Friday night.The man said he spied the alligator in a marshy area of the Nemasket River off Walnut Street in Middleborough.“Obviously we were a little surprised. It’s not every day that someone brings an alligator into the barracks, so we were taken aback,” said Trooper Joseph Baker.The alligator is about 2-feet long, clearly a baby. Police said the find does raise a lot of questions — where did he come from and are there more of them?”We don’t want any children to encounter him if they’re playing down by the river,” said Baker.The alligator was given to a reptile specialist who will determine its origin and, perhaps, how it came to be in the river.It is illegal in Massachusetts to keep an alligator as a pet.

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