Christina,
That's a completely valid question that I should address (it was 3AM when I was writing that on my phone). At the time I was breaking up a large breeding population that was used in our breeding trials for my graduate work. Jerry caught wind of free zonata out there and came running. Below are emails showing what Jerry is like when he wants something from you, and also so people can see how hypocritical he's been for the past two years now when he blasts people for being pathetic for wanting free zonata (remember, it's an email thread, so the most recent email is at the top):
Jerry:
REALLY?!?!? Love you mannnnnnnn......its noogey time. Your'e lucky I'm 3K miles away, LOL. Okay, lemme shoot you their names tonight and shoot a couple numbers for availability. Wow.
Jer
------Original Message------
From: Mitchell Mulks
To: Kruse email
Subject: Re: Hatchlings
Sent: Sep 4, 2009 5:08 PM
If your mother and aunt would each like a snake, then that is no
problem. =)
Mitchell Mulks
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of California, Santa Cruz
Earth and Marine Science Building D450
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Sinervo Laboratory
mulks@biology.ucsc.edu
On Sep 4, 2009, at 1:50 PM, Gerard Kruse wrote:
LMAO.....can I include my mom and aunt who live next door to me?
This is so hard!!!! Call me nuts, g'head..........
------Original Message------
From: Mitchell Mulks
To: Kruse email
Subject: Re: Hatchlings
Sent: Sep 4, 2009 4:44 PM
From Jerry:
I'LL TAKE THE ADULTS, THREE FEMALES ON THE FASCIS!!!!!!
How's that for interest....LOL. That makes 5 for me. Can we hook up my best mate Antoine with a couple z's?
I'm wetting my pants. I'm ecstatic as I have no fascis but now I have this stellar chance. This made my year, aside from my new job of course. All I can say is a most sincere "thank you", and I hope to reciprocate Mitch.
Really now, where can I send a thank you gift? Please, allow me, ok?
And I LOVE Hawaii.......my Lord, so much so we're going back this December for the holidays. Oahu is my favorite by far, but its all amazing. Give me a shout when you can about what the final gift decision is. So excited....
And you JUST called me......looking forward to our transaction. As soon as you need the box it will go out. Nice and smooth. I will have Antoine email you this week....
Jerry
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
From: Mitchell Mulks
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:38:56 -0700
To: <mbshop@aol.com>
Subject: Re: SORRY MITCH !!!!
Jerry,
I just got back in from Hawaii. It was a blast. On the way back from the airport I stopped by the school to take care of hatchlings. Here's the thing with the 'fasciatas...I have only females. They are all screamers, but no males. I literally produced 0.12 from three clutches. Unreal. However, if you're not opposed to adult snakes, we have a gorgeous pair of wild-caught Santa Cruz multifasciata that will need a good home. You can breed them next year and not have to wait. I have not seen any health issues with them, as we've had them in our lab for multiple years. Like I said in my voice message, we never know what we're going to see, as we aren't breeding for pattern or color (just our set experiments). As soon as these animals are ready to be gifted I'll give you a ring! Hope all else is well.
Mitchell Mulks
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of California, Santa Cruz
Earth and Marine Science Building D450
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Sinervo Laboratory
mulks@biology.ucsc.edu
On Aug 6, 2009, at 7:47 PM,
mbshop@aol.com wrote:
Hey man,
got your message this morning, and I'm just rolling in from a looong day. Congratulations on your marriage and honeymoon.....didnt know your status, but then again, how could I have? Why worry about snakes when you have a beautiful bride and a sweet getaway. BUT, if you're in a tropical place don't tell me your mind didn't wander even for a second......lol....
Anyways, I recall in an old e-mail you'd said "we should be hatching some really nice stuff of the multifasciatas", or something very close to that statement, SO, I was under the impression that I was looking forward to at least one or two remarkable specimens. Of course, you'd said the high-white fascis were already not possible as they were promised out to some good friends. So am I a wee bit disappointed, well, that depends. Yes I'm gettin' free z's, so that is absolutely sweet. But I was hoping for a couple of the ones indicated in the attached pic that you'd shown me way back when. I will keep my appendages crossed, but I'm sure I'll be a happy camper in the end with my deepest appreciations of course.
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...hitehead21.jpg
With that off my chest (sorry man, but multifasciata are the weakness for me........out of all the z's......hope you understand), I'd mentioned this to my best mate (%%^&&&^%^%^, also in NY) who is also really interested. I just gifted him a pair of multicinctas from a clutch I produced last year. He was pretty stoked when I'd mentioned the fasci thing. So I was wondering......aside from my five, could we swing over to him three? He's married with a 6 y.o. son. Thanks for the consideration in advance.
That's fine for the later shipment if you need the babies. I appreciated the detailed msg this morning more than you know, and again, just didnt want to get left out. This is a unique opportunity I don't wanna miss. All I ask if for a couple fascis that may look like the one in the pic as well as the consideration of three for my buddy.
That's all.
Hope I can reciprocate sometime in the future.
Best wishes in your endeavors as well as your new beginnings, and i will await word from you in the coming weeks/months. Thank you Mitch.
Jerry
THIS IS NO LONGER PART OF AN EMAIL THREAD, THIS IS NEW TEXT FROM ME. After Jerry got his seven free snakes, as I said in my first post, he pursued the captive propagation permit that would have allowed me to gift him 30 more snakes. However, after a trip Jerry took out here to look for zonata, I made my final decision to no longer talk to Jerry because of something he said in his email to me when he had returned to New York. Mind you, Jerry always screams to anyone that will listen that my behavior was irrational and uncalled for, but this was a decision that was building. It was apparent that Jerry was using me for his shot at free snakes, and that was proving to be an uncomfortable situation for me to be in. Between the time I first responded to Jerry about gifting snakes (above emails) and when I chose to excise him from my life (soon to be posted) it was brought to my attention from others talking to Jerry, people who could be trusted, that Jerry would cozy up to me in conversations and then get off the phone with me and blast me and my gifting methods to others right afterwards. Below is the email I sent Jerry that ended things between us (at least I wished it would have):
Jerry,
I've had some time to consider the content of the email you sent me yesterday and I've come to the decision that I will wish you good luck with your herpetocultural endeavors and bid our correspondence farewell. From our initial conversations I made it transparent that I can not, nor would I, associate my husbandry of zonata with any type of commercial activity. I thought you understood my resolve with respect to that topic, but it appears you did not.
Our first interaction was on March 30th of last year and you wrote the following:
"Aside from looking for "gifted" zonatas, which I'm always happy to receive if you were to ever be so kind"
At that time I was in the process of dissolving my breeding colony at my lab. After several emails and a phone call or two, I determined that you displayed great enthusiasm towards reptiles and possessed a substantial level of husbandry skills; enough so that I decided to offer you and each of your family members a zonata as a gift. You were more than gracious. After your multiple thanks, you even attempted to thank me with cheesecake as a gift. It was at that point that I made it abundantly clear to you that I could accept nothing in return, as it could be construed by law enforcement as a trade as opposed to a gift. Even if law enforcement would allow such gratuitous reciprocation I would have still declined your offer, as I did not gift you snakes to obtain anything in return; I simply gift snakes because it affords the animals a long life and makes the person being gifted the snake very happy. If I were to ever accept any kind of gift in return, as I just stated, it could be construed as a trade. Such an action on my part could jeopardize my career and affect my family life. I would in essence be in violation of my permit. It's similar to out-of-staters collecting state-protected pulchra and bringing them home; both are illegal and can result in serious penalty. Therefore, I must take my interactions with those that I gift zonata to very seriously. Below is a word-for-word piece of your most recent email to me:
"Just give me some room to sell some babies too...........broadcasting "free zonata" just really kills it for me. Can we find a middle ground amigo?"
I take great issue to that entire piece, but in order to be sure you understand why it concerns me as greatly as it does, I'll break it up into the two main components that I find troubling. First, "Just give me some room to sell some babies too" and " Can we find a middle ground amigo?" both imply that you construe a connection between my gifting practices with zonata and your commercial exploits. You couldn't be more wrong. I have always been deliberate with my intentions and have repeatedly expressed to you how my zonata are not, and will never be, associated with commercial exploits by anyone. However, in your email excerpt you are basically asking me to hold off on gifting prospective buyers so that you can make a profit. In essence you are asking me to increase the probability of you making a sale. The question you pose to me, and any behavior of mine if I were to ever agree to your request, would be both illegal and would directly conflict with my ethical stance on the subject. The fact that I have repeatedly expressed to you how important it is to me that my zonata never be associated with any commercial activity, and that irrespective of my wishes you still ask me to insert myself into behavior that could negatively impact my family and career, well, I find it rude and also that it displays a lack of friendship and character on your part.
Second, although I briefly addressed this in my email to you yesterday from my iphone, your comment "broadcasting "free zonata" just really kills it for me", I can interpret no other way except as being the comments of a selfish and greedy individual. In your first contact with me you were bold enough to state that ""gifted" zonatas" were something you were completely open to. At that time there were other herpetoculturists in the country that were selling zonata. At that time were you concerned about their bottom line? No, you were not. After several interactions with you I thought that your enthusiasm was sincere and that your intentions were to simply acquire specimens of your favorite species; specimens that were free of charge. However, now, as a direct result of your comments and actions I am left to wonder if I was nothing more than a vector for you to acquire and build a commercial collection. I hardly knew you, yet from our back-and-forths I determined that the health of any animal I were to send you would be in safe hands. I still believe that. I know you care greatly for your animals. That's why seven animals in total, one per person, were sent to you and each of your six family members. Remember, I hardly knew you and I sent you and your family seven snakes; asking nothing in return. Just recently you attempted to acquire a California non-commercial propagation permit. If you were successful in acquiring the permit you were more than ready to accept 30 captive-bred zonata from me. That would have put your total zonata count acquired from me and my laboratory at 37. You were more than willing to accept 37 free zonata from me, but felt so threatened or were so jealous and overwhelmed by the prospect of losing a customer or two, that you had the audacity to ask me not to gift zonata to others. How could someone who was so appreciative of gifts thrown his way be so selfish when that same generosity is endowed upon others? My only interpretation is that you wanted to be the sole supplier of zonata and that gifting snakes made you fear that you would lose business. I want this to be incredibly clear...my gifts to you were meant to make you happy, not to help jump-start your commercial ventures.
I'm both saddened and slightly sickened by your outlook and behavior regarding me gifting zonata to others. What I choose to do is entirely unassociated with any of your commercial practices. Before I gifted you and your family those zonata I had previously gifted over 300 zonata to others. Even after I had gifted you and your family those snakes people still inquired about purchasing zonata from you...so why would you think that any future gifting of zonata to others would impact any of your future sales, seeing as though the demand for zonata on your end still existed even after I'd previously gifted over 300 snakes?
I believe your true intentions and character came through in your last email to me. I am free to make up my own mind, with my decisions based entirely upon your words and your actions. I have come to the decision that I would like to refrain from any future correspondence with you, as it appears you misunderstand what type of relationship I am willing to have with regard to my non-commercial zonata exploits. Please respect my decision and understand that my decision is based entirely upon your actions. I wish you no ill will, nor do I wish to be involved in any drama regarding my decision. Good luck with your zonata exploits, as you have some absolutely beautiful animals you are working with; but understand that any and all future interactions between us are unwanted on my end as a direct result of your behavior and inconsideration of the rules I have to abide by. I will never risk my career or family for anyone, whether that person be my dearest friend or a new acquaintance. Good luck and goodbye.
Mitch
Jerry followed with this:
All I can say is that you are very much passive/aggressive, and I wish you well in working on that. I respected your silence, and you do this to me. I'm not going to argue senselessly. Whatever happened happened. But you targeted me and I defended myself as I'm not the liar or money-hungry creep you seem to think I am. You don't ever consider how frustrating your actions are or were, and that is also concerning as well from a behavioral standpoint. And to be mentioned in the same sentence with Voss is yet another issue. He can all he wants, but I have not broken what laws you claim, although he has done and offered and asked some VERY outlandish things. But I remain firm in my stance that I've done nothing to harm you other than retort against several verbal annoyances that you sent my way way that got me thinking. You made me out to be a monster for it, and that I despise. Simple as that, and I've not bothered you once. If anything, its the other way around and now you try to corner me on several unsubstantiated grounds. You will do what you do Mitch, up to and including trying to corner every zonata action or transaction that goes on and be the "rogue cop" when you "think" something is wrong. Yeah, I heard about your involvement regarding the Laguna pulchra poaching and that I had maybe done so. WRONG, and Kent Van Sooy can confirm that what I saw I let remain where I found it. And you're telling ME to leave you alone?!? Even after hearing this garbage I left well-enough alone out of respect and overall peace. The thing is Mitch, you assume too damn quickly and don't discuss the facts. You seemingly get off on being judge and jury too quickly, and crucify at the drop of a hat. Sure Voss is going to point fingers and now I have to have it held over my head?!?!? After he offers me stuff I know is wrong (which I kept quiet about as I wasn't looking to get him in trouble even after I got screwed by him) and also askes me to conduct illegal activity on a Federally-protected reptile (which I will also not mention out of overall respect and desire for peace in the long run). I too have a wonderful family and future, and don't want it compromised by some money-hungry idiot -- so if you needed a fall guy, it shouldve remained Voss and NOT me as I would never do anything to harm anyone. The worst I would do is breed these gifted snakes and sell the babies to support the hobby I love so much. Nothing wrong there, but I simply retort against your several commentaries and you brand me as a bad guy and a threat to your future. WTF!!!! Now THATS paranoid, and I only WISH you wouldve manned-up and had a civil discussion with me about it as I'd requested. But you feel you needed to do what you did, including the rumir about the whole 7 hour Laguna day trip with my daughter. How crazy all this is turning out to be. So I'm not going to challenge your paranoia anymore because I'd like to breed and sell a small handful of snakes anymore. You KNEW that from the beginning including the fact I had a website. And if any of that was an issue you shouldve said something to me. And in the interest of building a friendship with you, and several other whom I'm sure you've ruined my chance at, I wouldve even considering letting the site go. REALLY, I wouldve. But you never gave me that chance, and you crucified me based on your own paranoia and the words from a piece of shit like Voss. NICE WAY TO TREAT SOMEONE, even after I promised to not bring any harm to you Mitch.
If you don't want to believe me about that female, then there's not a damn thing I can do. I'm sorry you feel this way, and the overriding need to call out everything I say or do. But I refuse to be your "fall guy" and be made an example of things I never did. We both have lives to protect, and I will fight any and all accusations because that's ALL they are. There ARE NO Palomar pulchra here, and although it had been offered, I verbally turned it down. I'm the one who's at a loss for the bogus Martirs, and I think I've been through quite enough between Voss and now this issue we have. And quite frankly, your passive-aggressive tendencies reassures me that this is likely the best route to be on..........I can't walk on eggshells with people.......I just can't. Either you trust or you don't, and clearly no one can joke back with you or gently retaliate to your verbalizations........not a good combination in my opinion. I'm sorry you've been burned before, as generally people suck. But I promised I'd never do it, AND I STILL HAVEN'T. You've been the aggressor the whole time, beginning with "I hope what I'm doing doesn't ruin what you're trying to do"........why you even said that several times had made ME wonder if you've ever had another agenda I wasn't aware of. But on both ends we'll never know because you jumped ship first and never gave me a chance, even after making such provocative commentary. And only after several times hearing it did I respond. So why don't you look at THAT under a microscope and see how you made ME feel Mitch. Its not all about you ya know.
Jer
And here was my final response to Jerry:
Jerry,
Jerry, as I said before, I stopped talking to you for a very specific reason. It was based solely upon your character. If you wish to continue this discussion I will simply post your original email and my response to it. My engaging the validity of your claim that the female is wild-caught-gravid has simply reassured me that distancing myself from you was the appropriate measure to take. Leave well enough alone. I've already had multiple people email me today saying that they've gotten the "you better stop or else" thing from you. Most of them wished to know what your email two months ago said to me, however, I told them that was a private matter and that it didn't concern them. It doesn't. I don't wish everyone to hate you, nor am I out to get you, I just know that that female was not gravid when I found her. It bothers me that the entire time I was getting ready to gift animals to you you were also talking poorly about me to other people. I heard from multiple sources that you would complain that I was giving away animals, yet you were directly benefiting from me gifting you snakes. I never did you wrong Jerry, nor was I trying to "get you" with this topic. I was just calling it as it was, not the truth. Rosy boas, I've found them and I've kept them, but I don't know them. I know zonata. The female wasn't gravid. As I said, if I'm wrong, then I will apologize forever through time, but I know I'm not.
I don't want to associate myself with you. Not because I think you're a bad person, just that you character is lacking in departments I need my associates to be strong in. I know for a fact that you bought wild-caught Palomar pulchra from Voss. I know that. That's a federal offense. Have I told anyone? No. Have I alerted any authorities to investigate your premises? No. I simply called Voss out on it when he tried to get animals from me. I told him I was aware he was selling zonata and that I would not give him animals. He's never contacted me since (hell, he's disappeared since it was found out that all his martir were actually mutts (and I truly am sorry you got screwed in that department.)). I've left you alone because it's simply not worth the effort. However, you threatened me in your first response when I said I didn't believe what you were saying. You then commented on not saying anything else because you wanted the integrity of my work to remain high. What do you have to hold over my head Jerry? I didn't know you from Adam and I gave you and your family free zonata. You tried to thank me with cheesecake as a gift and I said no, that could be construed by law enforcement as a trade. Why threaten me? You have called me name after name in this thread, shit on my character, acted like a child, and besides pointing that treatment out to you I have remained calm and have asked you to engage in an explanation that involves the biology of zonata. Yet you still act as though this is a fight with rounds. I'm not in high school, nor do I want this drama.
Simply put, you buy illegal animals. You are apparently okay with falsifying the locality of hatchlings. These two things are way more than enough for me to say "I don't want to interact with this person". I have no doubt you love your animals. You appear to be a great father. However, you lack character in departments critical for someone to be considered a friend by me. I understand by now that that is no loss to you. I get that. However, this email is just between you and I. I have chosen to not name call on a public forum, and I still have not done so here. But, I'm done being nice. Drop your act. Drop the act that you don't know why I haven't returned your calls. You know very well why. It was outlined clearly for you in a very long email response. The fact that you felt it necessary to make it seem to everyone reading your first response to me that I was simply avoiding your calls and text was sad. I choose not to interact with you because you showed me how selfish and absorbed with money you truly were. If you feel this email is mean, or out of line, post it. Post the whole thing. Let everyone out there see how I'm accusing you of insane things. Also post your original email to me asking me not to broadcast free zonata because it would hurt your sales. See what your prospective customers think of that. I have a feeling not many people would be pleased with your behavior, nor would they look to admiringly upon your selfishness (wanting 37 zonata for yourself, but none for anybody else).
I am done with our interactions. You think I'm being paranoid, overreacting, and insane. You however do not understand what one mistake can cost a person's future. A Lacy Act federal violation might change your stance on that, but then again I simply don't know. I choose not to interact with you because you are trouble. I have a family and a wonderful future...and I sure as hell won't let you affect that. Please leave me alone and stop acting the victim with respect to my silence towards you. It's warranted and justified. Below I have once again attached my original response to you when you asked me to stop gifting snakes so you could make money. For some reason you don't seem to have understood why I stopped talking to you...try long and hard to understand this time. Re-read this email and the one below and understand that this is your doing. It's my choice to stop talking to you, but it's your behavior that led me to that decision.
If you don't leave me alone and drop this I will take whatever action is necessary to insure that you do. Understand, I don't want to do anything, but I will if I have to. You're right, I did provoke this whole thing by confronting you on the forum. Unfortunately you don't seem to understand the reason why. My provocation, an action taken by simply calling you out on problems with your story, I did because non-locale animals being advertised as locale is simply wrong. You think though that it was done out of spite towards you. Sorry man, you're not that important to me. It's just that in this case I know the facts behind the animal and the eggs, and your story is just full of holes.
Re-read this email. I have not called you names, nor have I belittled you. I have simply stated facts and reasons for why I chose the actions I have. Jerry, leave me alone and leave this alone. And, just for your own piece of mind, I never intent on interacting with you in any way shape or form anymore. I should have listened to my gut earlier today and now I'm paying the price.
Lastly, you need to understand that if you don't drop this I will CC this entire email (new and old) to everyone who would find it interesting. I DO NOT WANT TO DO THAT, BUT I WILL!
Mitch
BACK TO NON-EMAILS. Sorry that there is so much here people, but having Jerry in your life is a hellish ordeal.
Here's an email from Jerry regarding his permit which he's told people he does in fact have, just further proof that he lies at will, and for what purpose I don't know:
Jerry:
So my permit will NOT be approved as per Warden Chang? WTF?!?!? I just got a msg from Kathy Kline on this.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
And, just so you can all see that it's just not me that is having issues with Jerry and being lied to regularly, this email is from the guy who he ripped off with the zonata breeding loan:
Anonymous (until he says I can put his name out there)
Hi Mitch,
I just wanted to let you know that I did get my adult Santa Anas back from Jerry. He still stuck with his lie about producing females and pairs, even though I saw the pic of the 2011 female santa female he produced this year and the blog he wrote on facebook about selling it to some guy in VA. I know Jerry has plenty of hold backs I'm sure. anyways I got the original 1.1 adult pair back and he lied and told me the other adult female died. anyways thanks for taking the time to type me that email. if it wasnt for you and Paul I probably would have eventually gave up. thank You *&^%
There are a ton more emails but I've got a life to get to. I just want all of you to realize that Jerry is not a good person. He lies to everyone and then whines to anyone who will listen that he's the victim. He's a professional psychologist, yet he behaves like a child. Here's an example of how he handles situations he doesn't like. This was from his FB page yesterday, and how he chose to handle an apparent mole in his 'friends' group (more swearing, and more physical threats):
JK post this morning: TO THE MOTHER*^&(ER IN MY "FRIENDS" LIST WHO IS
NOTHING MORE THAN A MOLE FOR PAUL LYNUM.......$%^* YOU. Copying and
pasting then running to him and reporting what I write. Very nice! The
problem is that you ()*(&ers would never, ever (short of having a gun
on yourself or a baseball bat) step to me and say all this to MY face.
I hope karma comes right back around to a%^-$%ck you in every way
possible, as I've never done anything intententional to harm ANYONE,
yourself included. And if you even so much as THINK I did, man the
f$%k up and contact me privately instead of adding pure stupidity to a
situation that you CHOOSE to sit one side of the fence on and have
heard only a partial story on.
He's a real class act. Wow.
Mitch
Beware of Jerry Kruse
3,100.00 is not worth one's reputation. Instead Mr. Kruse plotting out what he's going to say to "blast" Stu, I think it would behove him to just refund the guy his money and turn this negative into a positive outcome for everyone concerned. Anyone agree with that?
Buyer Beware!
Linear Mode
