Inquiry: East Tennessee Reptile Rescue

Originally Posted by EastTnPets

First of all nobody is standing on their soapbox. She simply asked some people to come here and give our opinions about her. I don't know her personally on from my forum but I have talked to several people about her because a good friend of mine deals with herps. So I talked to Larry at Critterbarn regarding Sonnie because she had gave some advice and Larry said that she was a very respectable herps owner with lots of knowledge and he would recommend her to help anyone with their herps. So that is why she had asked some of us to come here just so you would know she is not a scammer. That is not a bad thing!!!

Your intentions may have been good, your delivery left something to be desired.

Ms. McBrayer,
This has been one of the mildest threads I have participated in on the BOI. I believe that is because most of us quickly picked up on the fact that Ms. Mynatt's errors were made out of ignorance and the impatience of youth.
The BOI is here specifically for exposing fraud, theft, misrepresentation etc in the reptile community.
The fact that there was indeed a statement of not for profit when this legal status had not been obtained was indeed fraud. Yes it was fraud committed out of ignorance and youthful exuberance but it was still fraud/a lie. This was exposed and Ms. Mynatt has corrected the problem which is a good indication that she was not committing malicious fraud.
As for having the facts, they are right here on this thread. Everyone has presented their evidence and beyond the "I thought I was doing right" defense nothing was disproven.
Yes, I am sure that Ms. Mynatt has a good heart and has the best interest of the animals in mind, but I am even more certain that she went about her start up the wrong way which was basically criminal. She now knows a little more and perhaps she will walk slowly into this enterprise building it from the ground up rather than starting on the roof before she has laid the foundation.
I do hope that she and her group continue to pursue their goal after doing a whole bunch of homework first so they do not end up falling on their face in the end.
As you are in the area and seem to have some form of relationship with them perhaps you could assist them as a mentor when needed.

BTW, If you would really like to see flaming I suggest that you look at some of the longer Bad Guy posts on this forum.

Originally Posted by TrulyRare

And as far as being poorly equipped, I have room, and all the equipment needed to house animals. i already set up extra tanks, with setups, without aniamls in them for this. SO..you can't dare say i hadn't took the steps, as i was following advice, and doing what i was told to do to get started. UNDERSTAND THAT FOR THE LAST TIME!

are you only going to take in small reptiles? because burms, older redtails, retics, gators, anacondas, iguanas and many other reptiles are not going to fit in a 55 gal tank. sorry, but many reptiles that are dumped are the big ones and they will need to be looked at by a good reptile vet and have a proper set up by themselves with their own heat and humidity requirements. i am not trying to flame you, just saying that this is a big thing to take on and you will need loads of money and free time to start it up. i would work on the herp society like you are doing now and then once you get that going and you learn more and more about the proper husbandry for many of the different species you can start thinking about the rescue. good luck.

I do not know any of the people involved.... but I do live near Morristown Tennessee... I have contacted a man about a 6 foot red tail and he lives in Knoxville, I found the ad on craigslist... the snake originally came from the critter barn. Well in the course of the conversation he stated he had been contacted by someone also from Craigslist wanting to know why he was asking 125 for snake cage and all stuff that went with it when he could give it to a rescue... name of the people contacting him was truly rare....so if they are a rescue why would they contact someone attempting to rehome something and basically ask for it for themselves....and yes I am buying the snake and accessories on Saturday.... I do not post here much but decided to because there is alot of issues about rescues and resellers... Thanks for allowing me to tell what I know
Chris Cowan

I belive not many of the new reptile rescues or attempts to be rescues realize that not many smaller reptiles are going to end up in rescues, They are easy to resell and people will take them in. The real ones going to the rescue are turtles, Big snakes, Iguanas and Monitors. Every once and a while you will receive a small critter but theres going to be tons of big ones needing help. A buddy of mine locally helps ' rescue ' critters. He dosn't run a shelter but he takes them in and helps them get rebilitated/medicated and whatnot then keeps them or finds a person he trusts to take them and give them a happy life. In any case recently he just got ahold of three crocs and took them in, Fun little critters Enough of my rambling. Just do you homework and what alot of people would like to see, Gain alot of experience with numerous types of animals or possibly work under somebody that has tons of experience before you try to do something that requires years of experience. I'm not saying that you don't have experience but just try to look out for the animals. If your not ready for everything murphy's laws are going to come and smack you with the I-Told-You-So hammer.

Her having a child and her sickness is NOBODY'S business but Sonnies and if she wanted it aired, she could have aired it herself.

She did air it herself. On more than one forum. On her myspace. In great detail. Right out in public. For anyone to read. So, yes ... please get off your self-righteous soapbox.

There is also no reason to bring Larry's (Critterbarn) name into this. He is an established businessman and herper where you live. Sonnie has purchased from him, takes her herps to him for care and advice, and she has befriended him. I'm sure he would vouch for her passion for reptiles and her willingness to help. It's still irrelevent to the issue of legitimacy, actively soliciting reptiles, equipment and donations when there IS no legal non-profit rescue established.

Pattye was already caught in a lie (I wonder if she even has her OWN 501c3, it's easy enough to find out at irs.gov) ... now Sonnie is emailing sellers on craigslist berating them for selling THEIR reptiles instead of turning them over to her? Yeah, that's a good way to establish credibility.

Max ... distance yourself.

First and formost, i want to see where i said this to a guy, I don't take in the bigger snakes, thats max's department. Send me the guys email addi and ill look it up, and see if i emailed him. IF i emailed him, he prob posted something as of...hey i can't take care of, or im moving and this needs a new home. I never ever, got rude with anyone. if someone wants to sell there animal, thats fine, but if they seemed desperate, i was willing to help them. secondly as far as the donation page went. all of everything on that website was the advice given to me under pattye. IT NO LONGER EXISTS. I have decided to hold off on this, and will do, what was advised to me. I don't know who you are Chris, But you act as if you know me, which in fact you don't. Where's the proof of that. I have never said anything rude to anyone. And before i decided to try at this reptile resuce, i have a lot of friends who are looking for animals. So if I see one that i KNOW someone's looking for i kindly email them ask them what they wnt for it and ask around. omfg. But no...some person who doesn't even know me, is going to come on here and say what they want. And yes, i have a blog on myspace, and yes, i don't have anything to hide, about myself. I did post about my personal business. And Laura, you act as if you know me too? I know i don't know you. And there is nothing wrong with telling people you take in unwanted reptiles. If you only knew how many ppl let animals go in their yards, and this is ONE big main reason, why herping has went down hill, espically in flordia now. I'm not lying, and I WAS UNDER the direction of someone who obviously didn't lead me in the right direction and i quickly fixed it.

So im no longer doing anything illegal. She told me to put a donation page.

Originally Posted by LauraB

There is also no reason to bring Larry's (Critterbarn) name into this. He is an established businessman and herper where you live. Sonnie has purchased from him, takes her herps to him for care and advice, and she has befriended him. I'm sure he would vouch for her passion for reptiles and her willingness to help. It's still irrelevent to the issue of legitimacy, actively soliciting reptiles, equipment and donations when there IS no legal non-profit rescue established.

+ 1

Larry and Donna are great people and I'd hate for people to associate them with this mess.

Laura I don't know you and vise versa but if Sonnie wanted her personal life aired here she would have done it. As far as Larry, don't you dare tell me not to put his name out there. I can because I have PERSONALLY talked to him about Sonnie and he gave great reviews. As far as befriending him, that is funny because him and her are great friends so evidentally you don't know what you talking about. I am not coming here to get into childish little rantings with members but again it is childish the way this has been handled. Take it or leave it because I really don't care. I know Sonnie's intentions were meant well but she got the wrong guidance (which has been said numerous times now). She sought help from another rescue leader and thought she was giving the proper information. Now that Sonnie knows she wasn't she closed it down because she knows she needs to do it the right way. But yet again, that doesn't give any of you the right to belittle her, call her names, call her youth (my god she is in her 20's), call her a scammer etc. She thought she was doing everything she was suppose to do and as far as the site goes, she put what she was told to put on there.

As far as her contacting someone off of craigslist, yes I know about that too because she had told me in a pm on my forum. She did not ask the guy to give the snake to her, she told him that if he couldn't find it a home that she would be more than happy to take the snake. What the hell is wrong with that? She is just trying to keep a snake from being turned loose, or taken to a pet store just to be resold. I know alot of people that offer to take in animals if the original owners can't get rid of them before they have to. That is no crime. As far as going and reading other threads where there is MORE flaming/bashing...no thank you. I am a grown woman and I don't like playing the childish games. That is why I don't put up with it on my forum. Non what so ever. What this thread needs to turn into is members offering advice and stop putting Sonnie down. She did what you all wanted and she closed the site. And what you all need to understand also is that she thought the advice she got was getting her on the right track. Again, lay off the soap box stuff because I am not the one throwing allegations and being a childish name caller.

You know I have no doubt why people discredit her because of what has been said on this thread. And I am not saying the original thread was a wrong thing. But what is wrong is everyone jumping to conclusion she was a scammer. But when you see someone takes steps to make it better, that should tell you she truly is on the up and up. If not, she would not have pulled her site and not gave a crap what any of you said. Give her some credit and stop putting her down. Give her advice and help her get this rescue up and running the right way so that the Tennessee people will have a place for their herps if needed.