Inquiry: JY, has anyone purchased from him?

Hello all,

Thanks for the kind words Michael and I am glad that you found the animal you were looking for. I did not know that you dabbled in turtles. I have a small group of turtles that I work with that I hope to be expanding this next year.

As far as JY, it is short for Jack Yang. He focuses on turtles and in particular amel or odd ball animals. From what I gather, he is just a hobbyist who has a little more money than the average herper. I talk to him from time to time and he is straightforward and honest. I have on a few occasions asked about legality of some of his animals and he said he had his paperwork in line. Therefore, from my point of view there are no problems. However, it seems he has some of the chameleon community up in arms but that seems normal, as they appear to be outraged if anyone, other than a select few, has species that are in great need of being established or desired by others. That maybe why they are still not being bred consistently. I have been doing hard research for the last 3 years and I know that I screw things up more often than get them right...that is just as much a learning experience. In addition, when there are more people to talk to about this research is when to real learing comes in. Sorry about rambling but just wanted to share my humbled opinion. Best Wishes Michael Hance

Michael,

I respect your opinion on the situation and to a certain extent you are right about the cham community. However, in this case the animals and species in question are in fact not of legal origin. Now if USFW doesn't do their job then I guess these animals are in a sense "legal" but that does not excuse the fact that the importation of these animals affects not only everyone in the cham community but the herp community as a whole.

However, the animals are in the country and he says he has the paperwork. If he did not have the paper work, my stance would be the same...they are here Cham people get up and lets get some quality work done. I am sure that all you know as well as I do...if you make something untouchable...people are going to pay as much as they have to in order to get it. So, reason would dictate if we( as a whole) continue to outline what produces successful breeding of this species which would lead to less blackmarket trade profits....hence they leave them alone.

As much as I hate to say it Parson's will most likely be considered extinct before I die because their envionrment is chaging so rapidly and the almighty human race is setting up house in new places. So the choice seems simple to me lose them without a population in captivity or with one. If we want one we need to get to work and stop fighting about who should or should not have them.
Again, I respect all opinions and this is just my way of seeing things.
Michael Hance

I agree with most of what you are saying. Unfortuantely both of these species have proven to be very poor canidates for captive breeding programs. Their slow development and reproductive rates coupled with the lack of knowledge of their captive care limits what can and will be done with this species. Several thousand parsonii were exported in the early 90's and very, very few of them are still around today. Reproduction past F1 has been nearly unheard of. With all this in mind I think that given the proper planning and attention to detail in husbandry and breeding parsonii and globifers could have a future in captivity but to think that smuggling them from the wild is saving them is a bit off in my view. Smuggling these animals in from other countries with "paperwork" only makes them more of a target in Madagascar. It will only heighten the demand for them to be collected and then "legally" exported to other countries and then laundered back into the US.

The ultimate issue with a captive program would come down to cooperation, too many breeders (not just chams) are too concerned with the money to be made or recouped from a breeding project to stop and think about the captive population as a whole. Only through careful monitoring and bloodline exchanges will a species with a very limited gene pool have any chance of captive survival.

He told a friend of mine he was collecting adult female spotted turtles from the wild to let them lay there eggs and incubate them. Then he had a add up a few weeks after saying he had a LTC female spotted who just laid 4 eggs. If this was a wild caught specimen an he is selling it as LTC that is not to honest if you ask me? But my friends transaction with him did go very well.

LTC (Long Term Captives) are wild caught animals that have been in captivity for a time, how much time before a WC becomes a LTC? Probably varies according to the seller.....

As far as Chameleons if the guy has the paperwork what more do you want? I would venture to guess that if you have the $$$ you can get legal Parsons there has to be somebody captive breeding them... The attitude seems to sort of be, if I can't have it then noone should.........

This guy JY must have some connections and some $$$ since he regularly advertises high end herps such as Albino Softshell turtles, GTP's etc. so he may very well have a source for true CB chameleons.

I do think he could boost his credibility by using Full name and some more info. in his ads.


Jon Cheris

Not at all a position of if I can't have them no one can. And yes, there are CB animals that are available. Not many of them but they are available for about the same price as what JY is selling his stuff for. It has to do with smuggling and regardless of the stance on paperwork and legality that is what it all boils down to. The more this practice is ignored or covered up with falsified documents the more it will continue. And it will most certainly affect every herper as time goes by.

MotherGecko,

I don't own any stores but I do breed Ball Pythons and sell them "through" other retailers. Dealing with the scum in this industry is frustrating. So, I normally take off a little so that someone else can deal with the customers LOL.

Do you have a store or just like me?

Jay,
No store, I have enough headaches to be honest. I work with mostly geckos but do work wit some other species mostly lizards not too many snakes. I have been doing the 'Internet site store' for a few years now but have cut back serverely due to school over at UCF getting much more involving. Anyhow just wanted to say hello to a fellow Port St. Johnianite, or whatever we are called. I guess it's better than being in Mims eh. If I am ever looking for some BPs i'll drop you a line... Take care, Mike B.

We should all thank people like JY who work hard to bring in reptiles like Parson's chameleons. I live in one of the fastest development targeted areas (Florida) in the world. If you have seen what I have, You would realize that wilderness as we know it is doomed worldwide within a couple of centuries. The entire world will look like the cities and suburbs with McDonalds on every corner, or even like the planet that is one continuous city in the last Star Wars episode.

Eventually, some wonderful herper will crack the mass production code on reptiles like Parson's and save them from the inevitable.