James Bear of Serpents Lair

I am hoping to get some advice. Almost 4 years ago I sent James Bear of Serpents Lair, $300 for 3 european longnose vipers.
I never received the snakes or my money. As a matter of fact, he moved to another state. When I posted inquirys about him I received email from other people who had also been ripped off by him. Finally, my wife who is in the legal field, was able to track him down. After several months he finally sent me half ($150) of my money. That was almost 2 years ago. Im really tired of trying to deal with this man to get the rest of my money thats owed. He recently sold snakes so I know he had the money to pay me what he had stolen. My wife wants to prosecute him and it surprised that he has actually commited several felonies.
What would you do?
I would be careful about sending this man any money up front because he is a thief. Daniel F Wilson Ironton, OH

This happened three years ago and your just now saying something?????

I have bought snakes from James and know of many others who have and all transactions went very well. Shipping was excellant and packing was even better. The money was sent before we had them shipped and had no problems at all. James Deffinately does not hide from anyone or avoid people from what ive seen as ive spoke to him frequently. I will send him this thread so he may also responde. But as I said to start it why did you wait THREE YEARS to bring this up?

As a matter of fact, he moved to another state.

Yeah... He lives in Colorado, where venomous snakes are very much illegal. He's well aware of this, and does not have any venomous in his collection here (in Colorado).

My only advice is to get on his web site, http://www.serpentslairreptiles.com, find the contact info for him, and start talking to him and/or his still "venomous legal" counterpart in Texas.

Our venomous collection which included a few euro vipers and a pair of gaboons was sent back to Texas with my best friend Tony who operates Serpents Lair II out of Houston , Texas.

Sounds like your snakes.

I bought 1.1 Vipera nikolskii from James a few years back, in fact they were probably out of that same European shipment. Both snakes were in critically bad shape when they arrived. The male was limp and nonresponsive, and died within hours of opening the box. The female was gaping, wheezing and stargazing, and she died a few days later.

James indicated at the time that he would "make it right" when I emailed him photos and documentation of the experience. Some years later, I am still waiting. Perhaps he lost my contact information. I lost his, when he moved. I sent him a polite email today asking what he would consider fair and reasonable to resolve the situation.

He's well aware of this, and does not have any venomous in his collection here (in Colorado).

I'd like to correct this statement... According to his web site, he no longer keeps venomous snakes in Colorado.

I personally cannot vouch for whether or not he has a venomous-free collection in Colorado.

Tanith, maybe you purchased snakes during this part of his history?

The move here would be a loss of 14 more snakes, and the apartment we took would later do in over 75 more valuable herps. We later discovered black mold under the carpet of our herp room, our animals had shown signs of respiratory failure. Further research proved our beliefs that the mold did in fact kill our collection.

Without making assumptions, I'd lean towards believing this could have been the start of his problems with his customers.

A friend of mine who had a nice Crotalid collection, lost the majority of that collection due to viral infected snakes which he received from this company--serpents lair. I know that he lost some very nice specimens not to mention a sizable sum of money----Recently , while in a conversation with this individual he stated he had not received any compensation for the loss of his animals nor any for the infected snakes he had received.........It is truly a shame when an individual sends infected snakes that destroy a collection representing hard work and dedication because of a few dollars.... I noticed in the venomous classifieds of Kingsnake.com that an ad has been placed by this individual and the company he owns !!!! E. Turner

Well, we've finished our move to NM....and it doesnt suprise me to hear more "flinging mudd" of my name. Dan.... I distincly recall speakin via email about our little ordeal. After explaining we were moving out of colorado to nm, I would send the remainder of the money once we got settled in. Considering we lost touch before, I have never HIDDEN FROM ANYONE in this business. I post routinely in kingsnake.com classifieds. We have a new email addy, visit the current add in ks.com's venomous. Have a nice day..... TANITH, im sure you can get in touch with me. What a wonderful hobby this is. Dan, hope to hear from you soon. Hmm, and "felonies" thats a strong allegation to sling around. I have never NOT taken care of problems with anyone and have gone OUT of my way for some people that other herpers would just shrug shoulders to and walk away from it. Thats not me.

thanks
James D. Bear
Serpents Lair Reptiles

OF ALL the people to stick a nose in it all..EARL TURNER... how strange.......and it be noted of your rep... lol... it speaks for itself. You must not be finished with bothering folks, Randy isnt enough for you? Who is the owner of this immense crotalid collection? And wouldnt it be prudent to assume anyone taking in NEW critters would put them in quarantine? hmmm, who had the bad practice, if they assumed the snake was in good health after being in quarantine than who is the real blame on?
I recall one time Earl that you offered to trade my partner German Sanchez and I a severely dehydrated and malnurished Andean milk for some leps.....what a joke. Im sure theres alot of folks out there with knowledge of similar deals as well. And once again....Ive always been around...not hiding.

James,

I did send you an email as I indicated. I'm not saying you're a bad guy, just that we lost touch and the issue never got resolved. Not surprising considering I did not actively pursue it, and it's fair to say that at least half the blame is mine for not doing so.

Gross pathology on the two dead specimens was consistent with a respiratory infection but not with paramyxovirus. In retrospect I should have done a stain to look for fungal hyphae, but there was enough evidence of inflammation, irritation and thick ropy material in the lungs that I stopped looking at that level. I may still have the necropsy photos on disk somewhere but I've been through several incarnations of hard drives since then.

I routinely screen for paramyxo; I'm paranoid about it. While I can't guarantee that there is no paramyxo in someone else's collection, none of the specimens I got from James in 2000-2001 showed positive titer.

Please keep in mind that recieving snakes from someone and then having paramyxo confirmed in your collection is *not* proof that the new snakes gave it to the old snakes. It can be the other way around. Unless you actually ran titers on your collection prior to the new snakes' arrival, and then ran titers on all the snakes afterwards, you are only guessing. It's a reasonable guess, but not a 100% certainty. I do routinely get titers on new arrivals and I highly recommend this precaution to every serious collector of venomous snakes. It only costs $30 at the University of Florida, and it's an excellent investment to protect your collection.