James Church, Bad Guy

This Boa stuff is rediculous. I have heard at least 3 or 4 "respected" breeders/brokers say that "Sure the one eyed Albino is a great deal for $700, and you can certainly breed them without any ill effects!" The last one of which was Reptile Kingdom at MARS. I was looking at their scarred and dehydrated GTP's when I heard this told to a woman and her daughter who were looking at a one eyed Albino. When I brought up that they shouldn't be bred, he again reinforced his original point that they can be bred with no problem, to which I shook my head and walked away.

I have spoken with James Church for a couple of years now. I have had the opportunity to go to his house and see his collection up close. I went to his house after the boa in contention was sold, so I have no clue about that particular snake, whether it's lip was injured/deformed before he sent it. I can attest to the fact that the only snake that I saw with a deformity was the "platinum blonde" anery. I believe that this litter had something wrong with it but I believe that it was just that one bad litter, not something wrong with the gene pool of his collection. I have seen many other perfectly normal and beautiful boas that James has produced. Deformities happen in every collection, I am in no way in support of or condoning the sale of deformed animals. Since I have no first hand knowledge of this boa I am not going to comment on this transaction, but it does look like a deformity to me. I will say that I believe that Seamus is stretching it a bit looking through the pics of the albinos and the three small boas in the shots on this post. The boa in the bottom left is a Peruvian/Hog cross that is very hissy, it is pretty obvious that that is what's going on in the pic. The albino shot just looks like a bad angle, I know where James got that and I know that that person would never sell a boa with any imperfection. Also, Ray, I have seen that hypo in real life and would not hesitate for a second in buying that animal. It looks much nicer than the pic.

James Canada-Smith

Very well then. Lots of literature, but well worth the possible customer's time! Thank you everyone for letting us all find out about James Church, he certainly will remain on my black list.

The hypo animal pictured is as far as I know produced by Bill Kirby and unrelated to anything James has produced. And yes, James goes by bahreptiles.

Now, personally I don't believe the albino (and perhaps others) have any real issue and I'm sure James owns many nice, healthy, and normal animals. The question of the gene pool's health was only raised (and maintained) because he failed to provide adequate proof against said accusations. (And it remains to be seen on my part anyway if the lineage really is healthy or not.)

Regardless of the genetic integrity of his stock, issues about the deal itself still stand. He sent a substandard animal and I honestly believe he knew about the problem from the moment he packed her up. The angle and nature of his pictures, in my opinion indicate this, Why else would they all be so conveniently cropped or blurry or angled? And to be quite honest, sometimes the jaw doesn't look all that bad, almost normal even. But it has a tendency to swing because it doesn't align properly so it can look a great deal worse (i.e. my picture in the first post).

And even after continued talk with him, his information about the animal's lineage and proof fail to meet my standards. He can't seem to provide any pictures whatsoever to back up his statements which is ludicrous, when he can clearly provide clear, full-bodied pictures to his next customer.

JCCS did you get to see my snake and the "platinum blonde's" parents? He told me they were anery and het anery and completely normal physically and did not share the unusual coloration associated with both my animal and the "platinum blonde". Could you verify this?
Additionally, did he actually tell you that it was a problem with the entire litter or is this a conjecture on your part?

I stand by my recommendation to steer clear of James, for reasons mentioned and unmentioned (but only because I don't feel like I have adequate proof or necessity to post them).

did he even produce the animals in question? i know he claims to have but, where are the birth pictures? or the pictures of the so called parents for that matter? i dont know of anyone who dosent take pictures of thier births. hell i even photo slug outs. also as far as haveing 2 animals (or more we'll never know) in the same clutch showing deformities in the same area is enough to keep my money out of james's hands not to mention the way he went about said deal and pretended not to have noticed something like that before packing the animal in a cheap attempt to blame it on shipping.i dont care how many big names he claims to have dealt with the true measure of a persons reputation can only be viewed once a problem occours and it seems very doubtfull that someone just starting out would send deformed animals to an established big names in the business so that dosent really come into play here what does is how he chose to handel this one transaction and how he has refused to provide any evidence or data concerning said lineage

Jessica, I did see the parents, they did not have deformities that I could tell, I did not inspect them closely but they appeared normal to me. They did have normal coloration. I do not know if the entire litter had jaw problems or not. Like I said before I am not posting about your particular purchase because I had never seen the snake and therefore do not believe that I have any pertinent information to that transaction. I just though that people were saying that snakes that are not even related to his anery stock were deformed because of bad pics. I have a female that is a half sibling to your snake. I was unaware that James produced it until a couple of months ago. I bought it from a very reputable breeder who had bought the entire litter and was reselling them. It has never had a health problem and has always been a solid snake. It has never had a health problem and has always been a solid snake. I am not coming to James' defense on this transaction, just saying that I do not believe that he has any more genetic defects in his collection's genes than anyone else.

James Canada-Smith

In a recent post in this thread, this was a statement made by a user.
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This Boa stuff is rediculous. I have heard at least 3 or 4 "respected" breeders/brokers say that "Sure the one eyed Albino is a great deal for $700, and you can certainly breed them without any ill effects!" The last one of which was Reptile Kingdom at MARS. I was looking at their scarred and dehydrated GTP's when I heard this told to a woman and her daughter who were looking at a one eyed Albino. When I brought up that they shouldn't be bred, he again reinforced his original point that they can be bred with no problem, to which I shook my head and walked away
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I am not sure what company you overheard this at, but it was not Reptile Kingdom. We did not set up at the MARS show and we have never been a vendor at this show. Everyone that knows me is aware that I do not advocate breeding snakes which were born with one eye. Missing eyes are a common malformation which is directly related to genetics and this animal should not be used as a potential breeder. Also, when I have green tree pythons available, they are 9 times out of 10 captive bred and not dehydrated or scarred. We sell only top quality animals and give our customers good information. I just felt this needed to be clarified since my company was brought into this thread for no reason.

I sent an e-mail to jessica over 1 1/2 weeks ago and I see she has not responded here yet. I am not trying to get things started again but, I have seen comments, opinions and total lack of knowledge of the conflict brought up. I have seen people mess with pics of mine and make there conclusions with no reasons. I have seen people comment and post there conclusions concerning my stock and my animals that are totally ignorant of what I have and produce. These people I denounce. I have a good customer base and repeat bussiness. I tried to make it right but she would not let me. SO as of now As she said " sometimes it is not noticeable". I currently keep 50 animals and that can and did get by. I have also see posts against Ben Seigal whitch I find ludacris. He is a great guy with great animals. so I take this with a grain of salt and a tums tablet. Someone will always make problems for you. As for how did I learn of this BOI deal? I do cruise the snake net. I"ve been doing it for about 15 years now. And I will continue. Cheers
James W Church

She recieved one out of many, and hers had a defect that was not noticeable to me. She has tried everything to make things difficult for me but, to make things right I SAID money back. She said NO. She just wanted to make a stink. So I say congrats Jessica , you are the stinkiest woman I have dealt with.

I did not respond to your e-mail because of this single concluding line from it.
"So with this said I will end this for now."
That indicated to me a lack of willingness to pursue the issue further on your part.

I want to know where you're quoting me saying " sometimes it is not noticeable". I said "almost normal" but never "not noticeable".
It's only not noticeable if you're ignoring it entirely.

Regardless of you keeping 50 animals or even 100, you took her out on multiple occasions to take pictures and I certainly hope you handled her to clean her cage and change her water. Anyone could see that her face is clearly not normal within 5 minutes of just looking at her. In fact, the second I pulled her from the box, I said "There's something wrong with the snake."
You knew! Why won't you admit it?
It's that single greatest dishonesty that made me shy away from a refund in the first place. How do I know I'll even get my money if I send the snake back? I don't!

Congrats James you're the biggest liar I've ever dealt with.