Tom Crutchfield: Greatest Reptile Dealer of All Time?

Bruce, is it too late for me to change my mind and join your fan club?

Hello All,

I will no longer respond to any personal attacks on this issue. I note that none of you have provided any legitimate proof at all to challenge post #1, my topic and statement.

To you personal attackers: Bill O'Reilly would be proud of your style of debate, but I remain very unimpressed.

Originally Posted by pch101

Bruce, is it too late for me to change my mind and join your fan club?

I think that means its too late dude.

Originally Posted by brucestephenson

Greetings! (as Tom would say),

Tom Crutchfield is relatively inactive right now (as far as the rest of you know). Nevertheless, I have had nothing but positive experiences in dealing with him. Tom has bought and sold the nicest and rarest reptiles and amphibians of all time and has been a completely honest, kind, and outstanding man. To me, he is the John Wayne of herpetoculture and will often be imitated, but never duplicated. Thank You!

Exactly what challenge are you referring to Bruce? The entire first post is shown above.

Well, I am certainly still a member...I liked the guy. Sorry I didn't have any bad experiences...but I didn't. Heard about the law violations, and yep, he had to pay for it...but didn't he do that?
Am I asking for herpers to emulate him? Not by a long shot. But I am not going to jump on some bashing bandwagon either, because I have no experience with him being an evil person...
He always treated me fairly, and was always pleasant.

greg

Joe, I guess you are right. I guess I blew my chance...

Greg, I respect your opinion and your reservation to bash Tom. I do not feel like I am doing so, I just feel like the original post is a bit of a stretch (actually a huge stretch). I personally feel his disregard for the law outweighs whatever good he has brought to the hobby. Just my opinion.

Bruce, I do not think it is our job to prove that Tom is not the Greatest Reptile Dealer of all time. I think the burden of proof would belong to the person making the claim, and I do not think you have proved anything except that the subject of Tom Crutchfield is a major controversy. However, I do like your sense of humor, and your ability to keep it even when under fire. Even though I do not agree with what you have said in your post(s), I have to admit, you have made me chuckle once or twice. BTW, I like Bill O'Rilley.

Well I have one last thing to say on this subject. To all you people who say tht you got junk, you must have never bought an imported animal before that then. I remember when Tom worked out of his house in the mid-late 70's and I used to go over and help him clean cages etc.. and saw the animals that came in and yes some looked better than others, but of couse they did. As someone stated earlier, you will always get some junk animals in large imported groups. But these are not "bad" or "junk" animals. You just want instand satisfaction is all. I got some butt ugly haitian tree boas from Tom once and he told me to wait a coupel sheds and see what they looked like and sure enough they turned out to be some beauties in about 6 months. So my point, if you haven't figured it out already, is that not all imports are going to be perfect right off and if you knew anything at all about it you would already know this. They need some good feeding and care and most will turn out to be fine snakes.
And as for you people bashing him for bringing in endangered wildlife. He did his time and something that nobody has mentioned in this whole long thread is that those animals were sold here in the good ol' USA and the people who were buying them were not kids off the street or little old ladies, they were herp keepers like yourselves. That's right, people that you probably know and deal with have somewhere down the line either dealt with Tom on some illegal deal with reptiles or know of someone who has. There are so many "private" collections out there that have many illegal reptiles in them that is ridiculous to pin this whole thing on just 2 or 3 guys. If there weren't a demand for these animals there would never have been any smuggling to begin with. So don't be so high and mighty because I am sure that there are a few people on this site that have animals that aren't exactly legal or they don't have the proper permits for them. I have seen it first hand at shows when the wildlife officer show up and people start shoving things under the tables and scrambling around trying to find their paper work that doesn't exist. So there are plenty of guilty people out there, it is just that they are your friends so you look the other way and bash the ones that aren't your friends. Grow up people.

David Button

David said: "So there are plenty of guilty people out there, it is just that they are your friends so you look the other way and bash the ones that aren't your friends. Grow up people."

Actually, from your post it sounds like that is exactly what you are doing. Tom is apparently your friend, and you look the other way. You seem to think he is a swell guy. I have had so called friends that pulled things like that (not to the extreme that Tom has), and I did not look the other way. I stopped associating with them, I do not have anything to do with them. I do not deal or associate with those kinds of people. So when you say Tom sold his illegal animals to people just like me, maybe you should rethink your statement, because I would not take a Figi Island Iguana (even for free) from anyone (unless they could prove to me that it was 100% legal).

Originally Posted by DavidButton

If there weren't a demand for these animals there would never have been any smuggling to begin with. David Button

Reading my posts It's obvious where I stand on this issue, so I'm not even gonna waste my time with your whole post, just this part. I'm gonna call BS, on that one. That statement is what is wrong with not only the herping industry, but this whole nation as a whole. That is placing the blame on someone else. "It's not his fault, it's the demand".

Anybody wanna buy some crack? I wouldn't be selling it cause I know it's illegal, but it's not my fault.

If you breed
Sanzinia,
Diamond Pythons
Beardeds
Shingleback Skinks
Snakeneck turtles
radiated tortoises
albino burmese pythons
and many many others,
you shoudl thank Tom.
Though what he did was illegal it could not have been done any other way.
Thanks to various laws that prohibit imports, and trade in these animals.
More good than harm has been done, that is for sure.
Do you actually think that Radiateds will survive in Madagascar for another 30-40 years? If not for us BREEDERS obtaining animals like these and being succesful with them without the red tape and beuracracy (sp?) of zoos, they will in no way be secure a future.