bcherps

Whether or not Tom will run the straight and narrow from now on will ony come with time. However, no one can take away what he has given to the herpetological community for locality data on species, how many breeding colonies that have started from animals that came here through him, and the knowledge of keeping that he passed on years ago and still continues to if you bother to talk with him.

If you bothered to look around at any reptile show that has wholesalers you could count probably count ten that have been locked up for import violations. I for one am glad beardies, the first albino monocled cobra, and several tortoise, monitor, australian species got brought into the hobby even if it was by below table practices.

I, for one, have never gotten a bad animal from Tom or the people that he sells with. I bought mainly boas so it was pretty simple. I have gotten a few ETB's and never had issues with them(which are far more likely to have issues). However, I have the knowledge, vet support, and setup to deal with imported animals. If you are going to buy imports, newly described species, delicate species, or new mutations you need to be prepared to deal with thier special needs.


To whoever said "all my boas died", why? did you get a necropsy? what treatments were completed? or attempted?, what local were they? what time of the year were they brought in? what was the size when they were brought in? what is your quarantine regime? Why did Tom supposedly threaten you? Did you deal with him curteously or immediately blow up and go on the attack when there was a problem? We need more info.


Is there a chance that you got bad boas, that could not have been saved by anyone?-YES, some batches of farmed boas have incredibly high % of losses.

However, Tom could not survive in this industry for DECADES if he only sold crap.

Thanks
ben cole