Beware of Panther Company

Company name: Panther Co.
Owners: Vincent Maggio and Josh Pritchard.
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
Contact: sales@panthercompany.com
Fauna user name: Panther company

Hello,
My name is Lam Do, this is my first BOI so please excuse me if I make any mistakes. I want to share with all of you about a matter that has been happening. There are some of you have already known about this and I want to share more information about it. This is not for my personal gain or for any vendetta that I have with Panther Co. I been doing business with them and I was very happy with them up until the last few weeks. I never thought about doing a BOI but many people have encouraged me to do so. Still I wasn't gonna do a BOI because of the drama and all the headaches. But I was threatened and bribe to shut me up. Josh Pritchard heard that a few people have encouraged me to do a BOI on his company (pantherco.) And send me a message.


Let me start from the beginning.

On August 2, I contacted Josh Pritchard about an F1 nosy faly he posted for sale at $425. He explained to me that this was from a wc sire and a wc dam.

I have to take a photo off on my computer screen because on fb messenger, Josh had deleted the pics.

Here is the sire, same situation.

Here's the picture on my fb messenger

Deleted on fb messenger but on fb private message still save the pictures.
I know I was buying a nosy faly from a wc female, so I was told by Josh. I would be taking chances because the wc female can be a mix. But that is not the reason for this BOI.
On August 15 I posted a few pictures of the F1 faly in a group on fb (chameleon gonewildusa).

After a few minutes, Shauna which is the owner of Tree Candy Chameleon messaged me. She recognized the faly because she had returned him back to panther co. The faly which I bought was sold to Shauna as an ambanja from Cyclone/grimbold.

shauna returned him back because he wasn't even a cyclone / grimbold. Here's an email that shauna received from Josh that explain what happened.




In this emailed Josh clearly stated that the male sold to Shauna is an ambanja.

So, after I read the message from shauna, I messaged Josh about the situation. At first Josh doesnt admit that it's the same animal but when I show him the pictures Shauna sent me, he recognized it.

Not even once did Josh told that the nosy faly I bought was label as an ambanja and was returned. I even brought up the subject about Shauna "ambanja" and Josh didn't even bring it up.

Josh did admit it was the same animal and has issued a full refund. I know most of you think that a full refund is ok and I should keep my mouth shut. What happens if I didn't find out? My breeding project would be jeopardized. I'm just the tip of the iceberg, there are many more people out there that panther co. have lied to. This is not what we need in the reptiles community, if I don't start then they will keep lying and getting away with it. I'm not trying to put out panther company out of business, it's about the chameleons. But this is out right unbelievable
I have concrete evidences that Josh and Vincent at panther co. knew actually what they were doing. As you can see from the above pics. Ever since then, they have been back tracking and delete anything that was related to this issue.
There was a thread on fauna classified which they sold a lot of 10 chams, which they label as F1 nosy faly. They have posted this picture

Which stated that the lot is from the same pairing. That picture is the nosy faly they sold me. That thread have been deleted.
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=489431
If a mod can bring that thread back then you will see that they are deleting evidences.
I'm doing this boi out of my care for the chameleon community and I want it to thrive and prosper for many more years. If I'm missing anything please let me know.
Thank you.

Sorry have to break in two parts

So what happened is that they sold lizards from wild caught parents as one thing based on their appearance, and then later decided it was not that one thing and had been mislabeled but a different kind, and then they offered refunds to all buyers of the mislabeled critters, is that how it went or no?
Are you saying the mislabel was intentional? If so could you please go over the reasons why you are thinking that?

Lucille josh at panther company has used said animal which is labeled ambanja, to sell a 10 lot of faly babies. The faly babies were from a wc female Stating the said male "ambanja" proves the lines out. He deleted the fauna thread but I have original link if the mods want to bring thread up. To show the deception panther company is showing. In trying to move unproven lines and labeling as pure faly when said lines are far from such. Http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=489431 that's original fauna sales ad

I see add didn't come up as I wrote it here it is again http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=489431

They are intentionally putting chameleons up for sale which they have no records of the lineage and they just put whatever locale they think look like. They don't notify the customers about it. They falsely advertise the chameleons. In the chameleons world locales are very important, we as breeder don't buy cross locales because we want to keep the line clean. A high profile lineage can bring in more money than a low profile.

Originally Posted by choppers1

They are intentionally putting chameleons up for sale which they have no records of the lineage and they just put whatever locale they think look like. They don't notify the customers about it. They falsely advertise the chameleons. In the chameleons world locales are very important, we as breeder don't buy cross locales because we want to keep the line clean. A high profile lineage can bring in more money than a low profile.

I'm not arguing because you obviously know more about chameleons than I do. But didn't they say that the parents were WC and that they were basing their classification on appearance?
And as soon as they thought different, didn't they notify and offer a refund?

No they didn't notify me, I asked them about it. They don't even know if that's is the correct parent to the male I bought. First they label him as an ambanja and sold him as an ambanja. Then when it doesn't look like an ambanja, got returned, they label him as a F1 nosy faly. And stating him as a off spring of wc parents. Which they don't know and they never tell the customers.

The F1 "Faly" male in question does not look remotely like a nosy faly to me.

I believe you have a 50/50 Nosy Faly/ Ambanja Hybrid on your hands. Many of the original supposed F1 "Faly's" carried this look, so that is probably why many do not catch on to certain traits.

The prominent and distinct Y bar seems to indicate ambanja influence, as those bars look like classic ambanja traits to me.

I would not have used that male as an indicator to prove out the WC dame as a true faly, if I had seen that male as a result of a WC female I would have already assumed them to be hybrids.

The coloration and shade of blue also do not seem typical of what I would expect from a real faly, but the barring is the most obvious giveaway.