Originally Posted by typherp

A good friend sent me a brief message while I was in the plane getting ready to takeoff, headed home to Chicago. The message simply said in entirety as follows:
"Hey Ty,

Don't respond to the fauna BOI. She's trying to take advantage of you, plain and simple."

This was the first I heard of a recent post on FaunaClassifieds as I haven't been active on that site for a while now.

I have no time to read all the comments or even the initial complaint made by Michelle as I rather spend my valuable time during this precious season with my family and friends. It's is just a speck of irritation on my glass-is-always-full-life.

When IRCF (International Reptile Conservation Foundation) was having difficulty with it's fund raising efforts to help save some of the critically endangered iguanas, I wanted to step up and help. After couple days of thinking, I decided that the best way for me to help them right away was to run a raffle for one of my most desired species (albino tegu) that would be produced in 2016. At this point in the year, I was mostly sold out of animals that I produced in 2015 and I was also tapped out on my giving to reptile related causes, which exceeded $50,000 in 2015.

I ran the idea by IRCF, which is a registered non-profit, and they agreed that we should give it a try. The idea was for me to donate 2 albino tegus to raffle off to raise funds. In addition, I also donated a third albino tegu to a donor who wanted to donate $2500 for one albino tegu---instead of participating in a raffle. We collectively raised more than $7500 (it might be closer to $9000.00 but I can't remember the exact figure at the moment) for IRCF.

What I forgot or didn't think about at the time of the raffle was that there are two types of albino tegu: one is typical albino which are T- albino and the other is highly priced T+ or Purple albino tegu. These were produced by breeding heterozygous blue tegus, so the outcome of which albino or how many by looking at the parents or the eggs are useless. I typically sell my T- albino blue Tegu's for $2500 and T+/purple albino blue tegus for $5000. In 2015, most of my albinos were T- with only two being hatched as T+, which I kept as future breeders. That result was what I was expecting in 2016 but it didn't turn out that way---all the albino tegus I produced were, to my surprise, T+ albinos. At this point, I decided to tell Michelle and others that, although I produced albino tegus, they were all expensive type and that I would buy 3 normal T- tegus from a friend to send to them. I could have just bought the tegus from a friend and shipped them without them knowing but I wanted to be honest and open. The other two winner and buyer was more than happy and gracious but not Michelle. She wanted the $3000 instead because "I didn't produce albino tegu"---which I clearly did. If she approached me and asked for money because she needed the money due to her financial need, I would have most likely to helped her by sending her the money but I felt that she was rather being greedy instead. At this point she started to inundate me with questions which I did not want to answer knowing what kind of person she was and that anything I say might be twisted by her to her advantage, so my answer to her was none or very short. I decided also that I would send her the tegu that I produced (T+ albino) since her contention was that she wanted one that I produced and not by someone else, but I didn't communicate that with her to the end because I wanted to see what kind of person she was and she was greedy to the end. I ask for her address twice so that I could ship her the tegu but she refused each time. After the second refusal, I decided to auction off the tegu I was going to ship her to raise more money for IRCF, which we did to the tune of more than $5000.

Soon I received a registered letter informing me of a lawsuit filed by her in MA. After much thought, I hired an attorney to take care of the lawsuit and fight her claims in court. We decided to ask for change of venue as it would be difficult/inconvenient for me to attend this court case and because the farm is in FL. After few back and forth filing amendments, my attorney set up a phone session with magistrate judge on Dec. 13. At this meeting, she asked for a tegu but I refused because I didn't think she deserved it and that tegu I saved for her was auction off already. I offered her $400 to reimburse her for the raffle tickets she purchase. The next court date is in February and I'll let the judge decide what is right. All I wanted to do was to help the animals in desperate need. In the future, I would still try to help animals in need but with caution. If I see a suffering dog in an enclosed car, I am still going to break the "law" and damage someone's property.

I am currently dictating this response in flight so that once at home, I would not waste my valuable time on this. This will be my one and only post. I'll let others judge me for my actions positive or negative. This time of the year is great and fun time for me and I wish everyone the same---great holiday season filled with love of family and friendship. Here's looking at 2017 with open arms and open hearts.

Ty