Jim Talioferro - Dead Shipment/Unresponsive

Please keep this thread alive and updated

You are actuall incredibly tolerant. I feel like 95% of people here would freak out and go off. The first tortoise looks like it was shipped DOA and the heat just furthered the decomposition process because you normally don't see the shell bursting from the rot of the carcass like that unless it's been a few days old and it's been out in the sun. So that looks really suspicious, but the male tortoise is horrible. I can't believe anyone would ship him like that. I feel like that's what a child would do without knowing what the difference between right and wrong.

Originally Posted by cork_screw

You are actuall incredibly tolerant. I feel like 95% of people here would freak out and go off. The first tortoise looks like it was shipped DOA and the heat just furthered the decomposition process because you normally don't see the shell bursting from the rot of the carcass like that unless it's been a few days old and it's been out in the sun. So that looks really suspicious, but the male tortoise is horrible. I can't believe anyone would ship him like that. I feel like that's what a child would do without knowing what the difference between right and wrong.

The heat in that box would have been extreme, like an oven, which would be enough to cause that separation since she was in there for several days (shipped on a Wednesday, arrived the next Monday). You can also see evidence in the pictures that she tried to claw her way out while in the box. I'm afraid that she was probably very much alive when she was put in that box and suffered a very terrible death.

On November 4th I received a Text from Jim Taliaferro asking me if I would like to trade one of my albino female eastern diamondbacks and a possible het male EDB for his blue eyed leucistic female ball python. I responded possibly and asked him to send me some pic's which i received and i sent him some pic's of the EDB's as well and told him i would call him the next day while i was at the hot show (working a booth). I called Jim on the 5th and talked to him, he said he was 29 had hot experience with both copperheads and EDB's was was looking for something new. He also stated that he had 3 blue eyed lucy's and could afford to trade one away. We agreed to make the trade at which point I allowed my 10 year old son to trade away another Albino EDB and poss het for a Lemonblast and spider male ball python with a friend of Tim Cole's names John who was also working a booth at the show. My son was so excited, John took him all around the San Antonio show and showed him what he could produce by breeding the lucy female with the lemon blast male and what they would be worth. Jim and i communicated 5-6 times over the next few days and agreed to both ship on the same day Nov 8th.

On Nov 8th I sent Jim both the albino female EDB and possible het via Delta pre paid (my 14 year old daughter Ciara wanted to be responsible and pay for the shipping because she didn't feel it was fair that I traded 4 of my snakes for some ball pythons for her and her brother and used her baby sitting money) and texted him the air bill tracking #, the flight information and the # to delta so he could track the flight and asked him to send me the FedEx tracking # for the lucy he was supposed to send. On the 8th at 8:40pm i sent Jim a text message asking him if my animals arrived safely, he said he hadn't opened the box yet but was excited to but wouldn't be home for another hour. He also said he sent our lucy out at 6pm and would text us the tracking # once he got home. on the 9th I sent him 6 texts along with several phone calls asking him for the shipping information but got no reply. I called FedEx and UPS and asked them if there was anything scheduled to be delivered to my address and they both said no. On the 10th I tried again to both call and text Jim but he was unresponsive. I then sent him a nasty text demanding the blue eyed lucy we agreed to, the 850.00 for the animals I sent him + the 85.00 for the shipping or the animals returned to me or I would call the Dryden Police Department. It wasn't until then that he responded and stated that he sent the snake and it was delivered to my residence. I asked him for the tracking # but again he refused. I called the Dryden Police Department and spoke to Sargent Peters who informed me that this was a civil matter and that I would have to take Jim to court. I explained to him that I was just interested in the animals well being and needed to get the tracking information from mr taliaferro and asked him if he could please call him and ask him for the information se we could track the shipment. He agreed but said he didn't think it would do any good, he said he knew Mr. Taliaferro quite well and had sever run ins with him in the past. Sargent Peters tried calling him several times before leaving him a message and calling me back. It wasn't until 7:55 in the evening that he texted me the tracking # while i was at my son's veterans day performance. I called UPS with the tracking # and confirmed it was at the house, I then called my neighbor and asked them to bring it inside. when I arrived at the house we opened the package to find a half frozen, very skinny spider ball python, to a blue eyed lucy. Needless to say my children were devastated!!! Not only did this guy send us a snake 2nd day air with no heat pack, he sent us the wrong animal all together!!! He has yet to respond to any of my texts or calls and refuses to be a man and correct the situation. I will post the pictures of the animal he promised, what we received and the temp gun reading of the spider ball we did receive after we took it out of my 82 deg incubator later. SO WHAT EVER YOU DO, DON'T LET JIM TALIAFERRO DO THIS TO YOUR KIDS!!!!!

I Know this is an older thread, but I just had to say that the pictures of that poor tortoise made me cry and I am deeply saddened that such abuse exists in this hobby. As someone that is very claustrophobic, I can't imagine dying the way that tortoise did. I think the most disturbing Part is that she clawed and tried to chew her way out. I am extremely sad and sickened by this thread.
How can you ship an animal on a Wednesday 2nd day?!????!! Maybe it was easy for him to take the risk that she may or may not sit in the sweltering heat for 5 days, but that tortoise had no choice.
Please let everyone reading this not let her terrible death be in vain - ship correctly, ship overnight, watch the weather .. I don't know how anyone reading this could not be affected by it. If you are shipping irresponsibly, please reconsider your methods. No animal - not any single animal, deserves to die the way this poor innocent creature did.
... Still having difficulty wrapping my head around this one.

wow, cant believe i never saw this thread. makes me wanna go home and treat my tortoise a little extra special, now
disgusting. this "person" that shipped will get his/theirs in the end. it all comes back around

Originally Posted by reticguy76

wow, cant believe i never saw this thread. makes me wanna go home and treat my tortoise a little extra special, now
disgusting. this "person" that shipped will get his/theirs in the end. it all comes back around

I too made my little tortoises an extra special dinner tonight and took some extra time to appreciate how blessed I am to have them.

OMG, I would want to woop His A ** and put him in the same container and ship him and see how he feels............... That is Nutts... He wants some sulcata's a friend has I am going to make sure that does not happen.. Someone needs to take his animals away... That is the worst I have ever seen.. Good luck

The spider ball python he sent us ( not the blue eyed lucy he was supposed to send us) just died. My daughter cried all day. we did everything we could to save it but it just failed to thrive. hopefully the word is out about this guy and they do take his animals away.

please make sure he doesn't get any animals from your friend and spread the word about Jim Taliaferro.