This is a complaint/flag/warning for anyone looking to do business with Ian Curtis in Louisville, KY. Particularly those who wish to acquire African House Snakes from him. My name is Sarah Smith.
Let me start off by sharing some advice: NEVER, ever, ever enter a breeding loan with some one without a written agreement. Because people you truly believed to be decent individuals can and will stab you in the back.
When I met Ian Curtis, I was transporting a 4ft. Nile Monitor from MO to KY to rehome. My boss at the time was a bit eccentric when it came to taking in animals at our veterinary clinic, and the clinic was not equipped to house or care for it. It escaped on a nightly basis. When he finally expressed the need to find another home for it, I jumped on board and offerred to help. The idiots who sold themselves off as responsible caretakers showed up in a two-seater car with a jacket to throw over it, and I sent them away. I met Ian at the KY herpetological society meeting, where I went to find some one who might take the monitor and give it a home where it was going to be well cared for. It was one of his friends that took it. He was friendly, and expressed his passion for african house snakes. I'd been keeping/breeding house snakes for the past 5 years, and so we had lots to discuss. He was going to be doing a presentation of AHS at the Herp Soc. and I invited him out to my house in MO to view my setup and the 5 different species I was keeping/working with.
This was back in October of 2012.
In the beginning of 2013 I found myself moving back to KY. I was selling my house in MO. You can still locate my add on Fauna here where I advertised most of my AHS for sale. The move was going to cost a lot of money and space, as I was moving into my dads before finding another place in Louisville. This is important because of the irrational claims Ian makes towards my living situation, my finances and my employment. I only planned on keeping my most valuable snakes: My albinos breeding project, and my bug-eyed house snakes. I also had two rescued ball pythons, a rescued albino pine, and a mexican black kingsnake that I was going to take time to find homes for when I got to KY, as it was not likely I would find anyone to pay for and ship such common snakes.
I moved the last week of February because my new job started March 5th. I had contacted Ian because I knew he was pursuing an albino house snake project, and all he had was a young albino male. I'd received a great deal of help from fellow AHS breeders when I was starting out, and I saw my chance to return the favor to the herp community. I texted Ian and asked if he would be interested in taking my albino females and albino males on breeder loan so he could get a head start on his projects. I was going to be unable to breed these snakes any time in the near future, and space was going to be tight until I moved. One of these albino females in particular was very rare, and deep red. I acquired her from Michael Crabtree in 2011. It was her two male offspring that I offered to send with the pair of adult females. The plan we discussed was the same deal I'd made with another breeder: He would house/feed/breed my adults, and he was welcomed to keep half of the offspring he produced in the next year. After a few clutches, I would get my girls back, and my males, and he would have an awesome start on his albino project. He was eager and enthusiastic about the plan.
I changed cellular services back in May, so my only evidence to what we discussed was lost with my verizon text messages. We met in a parking lot outside of a reptile show, no one else was present, despite his claims to having witnesses. When I dropped the snakes off with him I explained that several months ago a rescue I had taken in from the clinic had brought with it an infestation of mites. (No good deed goes unpunished!) My entire collection had been treated thoroughly, and I had continued treating them weekly despite not seeing evidence of mites on anything in weeks. The people who acquired my other house snakes had no complaints, but still I was cautioning Ian to quarantine them like any good breeder would do. The snakes were healthy, housed on white paper towels, and we spent a good hour or so talking there in the parking lot before I had to go.
I tried to keep in contact, but I stopped hearing from Ian. I had started my new job and moved into a house in Louisville, and I was busy pursuing my art career...but Ian's silence began to bother me. I asked after him with other local herp people, trying to find out why my texts/calls were unanswered...what follows are my efforts to contact him starting in July.
Then came my attempts on Facebook...I got one response, very brief, back in August.
As you can see, by November I was tired of it. I didn't like that he would not talk to me. Something was definitely up. So I wrote requesting my snakes back. Again. NO response. So 1 week following this post I posted PUBLICLY in a facebook group he was active on that I needed to hear from him ASAP. I was tired of his lack of communication and I wanted my snakes back. I took screen shots of his immediate response, but I missed my initial post in which I called him to attention. Needless to say the thread is deleted now, but I do have our transaction following my initial post:
He did not write me back. I had to write him. This is the private message transaction that followed. I have included screen shots as above because the date/time features on Facebook are very handy. I think the maturity illustrated in his responses speaks for itself:
The final two will be in the next post below...