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Info US GLOBAL EXOTICS SPCA RAID

YOU are wrong Randal. I had to buy a pet shop license from the GA Dept of Agriculture. They had to inspect the building before I opened and quarterly as well. We had to keep a log of ALL animals that were bought or sold from the pet shop along with names and addresses of both.
 
critical bill said:
Heres your source, deal with them. I believe what the story says is accurate.

http://readingeagle.com/blog.aspx?dtf=20081001000000&dtt=20081031235959&bid=17

Friday, October 24, 2008
Serpent's Den in Lehighton a house of horrors

A report in today's Allentown Morning Call, details the gruesome discovery at the Seprent's Den reptile store in downtown Lehighton this summer.

The stench from the Carbon County store overpowered animal control officers who entered on a tip from a neighbor that the store owner had not visited the store in three months and their were venomous snakes in insecure enclosures.

The snakes were not fed, given water or able to escape their own mounting feces. Except for one boa, which was found slithering through the store.

The July raid at this serpent hell discovered nine dead snakes and resulted in the seizure of: 108 pythons, 19 boa constrictors, 18 rattlesnakes, 6 cobras, 2 vipers, 3 king snakes, 2 milk snakes, 1 rat snake and 1 unidentified snake.

Yes, the store did have venomous snakes: the rattlers, cobras and vipers.

From John J. Moser's article: "The July 22 seizure at Serpent's Den, which operated at 114 S. First St., was the largest known reptile seizure in the state, said Jack Ardey, an animal cruelty officer with the state SPCA. It came to light Thursday because an animal rescuer petitioned Carbon County Court to take them off his hands."

The store owner, Steven Markevich, 44, of 83 E. Third St., Jim Thorpe, Carbon County, has been charged with reckless endangerment, maintaining a public nuisance, 17 counts of animal cruelty and 160 counts of violating the borough exotic pet ordinance.

He is currently on the run.

Markevich's Web site has been abandoned and is now one of those annoying "search" sites.

A little Internet sleuthing turned up a Steve "snakehead" Markevich as a 1982 graduate of Kearny High School in Kearny, N.J.

Seems Steve, or someone else, logged into his Myspace page today and changed his description (sorry, like to the Yahoo cache won't work) from a 44-year-old male to a 20-year-old male and made his profile "private." Hmmm, wonder why?

If anybody is interested, I do have screen shots of his old MySpace page. Yep, the whole page. You gotta love cached Internet pages ...

He's been peddling snakes, turtles and lizards via the Internet for some years now and I wonder how his level of care has been over the years.

I hope they can track this guy down and throw the book at him as much as they can.

Even though snakes aren't cuddly and aren't my favorite, no animal deserves that type of abuse via three months of neglect.

Thanks to Al Walentis for the story tip.
Click to expand...


First of all AGAIN, the newspaper article is BS and so are you by saying I was convicted

Fact: animals were not seized on July 22nd 2008, they were illegally removed under false pretenses on April 19th.

Ask yourself why a newspaper article would publish 6 months later only after I seen my animals and cages being sold on kingsnake.com?

Someone is trying to cover their own ass and dump a load on me.


Anyone interested in more info can read the Bad Guy thread posted about me. Even the original poster was man enough to quickly apologize for labeling the thread "Bad Guy" Chuck you are one of the few that actually belive in the BS


Chuck pm me your address so I can have my attorney contact you.
 
There is video available on PETA's website. However, this is PETA and of course they have edited the footage to make it look as bad a possible.
 
kmarsh said:
YOU are wrong Randal. I had to buy a pet shop license from the GA Dept of Agriculture. They had to inspect the building before I opened and quarterly as well. We had to keep a log of ALL animals that were bought or sold from the pet shop along with names and addresses of both.
Click to expand...

Kathy,

Please cite the U.S.D.A. regulations concerning husbandry of reptiles.
Also cite where they regulate the care and well-being of reptiles as applicable by law under the guidelines set forth by the United States Department of Agriculture. Let me help you out, go here:

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome

Of course you had to buy a license for your pet shop BECAUSE you had MAMMALS. REPTILES, again, are NOT held in the same regard of regulations as MAMMALS. The law in Georgia probably states you have to have a record of ALL sales in your pet shop, which includes reptiles. That has NOTHING to do with the U.S.D.A. Also, the Georgia Dept. of Agriculture DOES NOT regulate the care/husbandry of REPTILES. For more info, go here:

http://agr.georgia.gov/02/doa/home/0,2473,38902732,00.html

Randal Berry
 
lanceheads said:
Kathy,

Please cite the U.S.D.A. regulations concerning husbandry of reptiles.
Also cite where they regulate the care and well-being of reptiles as applicable by law under the guidelines set forth by the United States Department of Agriculture. Let me help you out, go here:

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome

Of course you had to buy a license for your pet shop BECAUSE you had MAMMALS. REPTILES, again, are NOT held in the same regard of regulations as MAMMALS. The law in Georgia probably states you have to have a record of ALL sales in your pet shop, which includes reptiles. That has NOTHING to do with the U.S.D.A. Also, the Georgia Dept. of Agriculture DOES NOT regulate the care/husbandry of REPTILES. For more info, go here:

http://agr.georgia.gov/02/doa/home/0,2473,38902732,00.html

Randal Berry
Click to expand...


I agree with Randal, reptiles except for turtle under 4" are not regulated by the USDA.
 
(23) “Pet” for the purposes of this chapter means any animal that is customarily obtained as a pet andincludes, but is not limited to, the following: dog, cat, bird, equine, fish, reptile, rodent, chinchilla, rabbit,hamster, guinea pig, or miniature pig. Any animal described in O.C.G.A. Sections 27-1-2 GeneralProvisions and 27-5-5 Wild Animals are not considered a pet for the purposes of this chapter, exceptwhere specifically mentioned herein.

The above is from the link you sent Randall and it the Rules of the GA DEpt of AGriculture Animal Industry Division Chapter 40_13_13 Animal Protection. It goes on to state the procedures and licenses charges.
I don't know if state specific rules can be more strict that USDA but I know what GA Dept of Ag rules are. I lived it for 4 years.
 
Just a thought:

There are mulitple versions of "the video".

? ? ? ?

This case is interesting to me however it turns out. Sad in any case.

Personal observation:
Not everyone posting in this thread seems to have considered all of the facts or evaluated all the information *cough* "Chuck"..... and should probably take a break from this thread for a bit.... just another thought. No need for agression..... can't we all get along ??? ;)
 
kmarsh said:
YOU are wrong Randal. I had to buy a pet shop license from the GA Dept of Agriculture. They had to inspect the building before I opened and quarterly as well. We had to keep a log of ALL animals that were bought or sold from the pet shop along with names and addresses of both.
Click to expand...

Please note that Randall said the USDA doesn't regulate reptiles, which was and is correct. You dealt with the Georgia Dept. of Agriculture.
 
Matt K said:
Just a thought:

There are mulitple versions of "the video".

? ? ? ?

This case is interesting to me however it turns out. Sad in any case.

Personal observation:
Not everyone posting in this thread seems to have considered all of the facts or evaluated all the information *cough* "Chuck"..... and should probably take a break from this thread for a bit.... just another thought. No need for agression..... can't we all get along ??? ;)
Click to expand...

*cough* *cough* *cough up for some coins*
 
critical bill said:
Sure, of course, maybe that wallaby was actually trained to play dead. :eek:
Click to expand...

I didn't say that. I said that PETA is going to edit the video to suit their own purpose. We don't know what condition that wallaby was when it arrived at US Global Exotics. We don't know how long it had been there. We don't know if the undercover "vet tech" employeed by PETA whacked it over the head. We don't know. What we do know is that PETA has an agenda, and that is to shut down all animal breeders and pet shops, and to shut down all scientific labs that do testing on animals.
 
KelliH said:
I didn't say that. I said that PETA is going to edit the video to suit their own purpose. We don't know what condition that wallaby was when it arrived at US Global Exotics. We don't know how long it had been there. We don't know if the undercover "vet tech" employeed by PETA whacked it over the head. We don't know. What we do know is that PETA has an agenda, and that is to shut down all animal breeders and pet shops, and to shut down all scientific labs that do testing on animals.
Click to expand...

The guy possibly whacked it over the head? The way Mr. Shaw spoke about its condition seemed to establish that plenty of wallaby's were in that same condition, wobbly from dehydration and zero body fat.

Hey you know what, I don't even want to talk about this anymore because it makes my stomach sick.

I'm done I'm out.
 
First time actually reading ( skimming) this, but it's really sad to hear about the animals and its really sad to hear how someone could let them be mistreated in such a way. An it will be another incident that will be used against us to outlaw our animals. But i think everyone is held accountable for there own actions and its not forgotten by the ones who make the final decisions. Not to refresh the earlier tension but i also dont think a breeder/seller should be held accountable or blamed for what happens once the animal is out of there possession, unless they know there animals are going somewhere unsafe.
There were also a few opinions from others about outlawing our reptiles. some say its coming. They said after sitting back and over seeing the past years with the permits or some states outlawing certain reptiles completly. We will need a permit for most reptiles or wont be able to own them at all. To be quite honest i havent been around long enough to give an opinion. But i know Exotic pets is a multi billion dollar buss a year, could this economy take the hit of outlawing exotic reptiles? Thats alot of people and stores that would lose alot of money, there would be alot of people looking for a new profession too.
 
critical bill said:
The guy possibly whacked it over the head? The way Mr. Shaw spoke about its condition seemed to establish that plenty of wallaby's were in that same condition, wobbly from dehydration and zero body fat.

Hey you know what, I don't even want to talk about this anymore because it makes my stomach sick.

I'm done I'm out.
Click to expand...

OK, be out of it then. I'm just saying things may not always be what they seem. Take care.
 
I have a few questions. Or thoughts

1 If this raid was to be done because of the bills coming up.. Why did they not raid all importers/ exporters?

2 How can 8 people properly care for 22000 plus animals?

Yes there was a lot of money spent on new caging but it does no good if the animals were not fed and watered properly.

3 Why did they not get rid of the dead animals that were found in boxes the morning of the raid? I think dead animals should be properly taking care of daily.

I will give my money to more established causes such as USARK...
 
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