Buying reptiles at shows and getting them back..

I just received an interesting phone call today from someone whom had requested for me to bring an animal to the Daytona Beach Expo, where he was planning on buying it and then bringing it back home with him on the plane.  He called the airlines to find out how he could get his purchase on board with the minimum amount of hassle.  Simply put, he was told to NOT do it at all.  With the stringent security measures in place after the 9/11 attack, there would be a strong possibility that the discovery of an animal in his possession attempted to be snuck through security would cause, at the very least, his missing his flight, as well as the possibility of arrest.

Anyone whom has had this in their plans for picking up any animals at any show should strongly reconsider their plans.  Once you are in the airport with your animals, you run the risk of being asked to get rid of the animals before you can return home.

Another point about this issue:

I do expect a number of people to pick out their animals and then request that the vendor take them back home and ship them to them.  Please understand that this kind of negates the reason for a vendor going to the show in the first place.  We pack up a bunch of animals, display them on the tables, and hope people will buy them and take them with them.

Anyone taking a lot of animals to the show, then bringing them back having to pack them up for shipment is sooner or later come to the realization that there really wasn't all that much point to going to the show in the first place.  Doing shows is a HUGE overhead in time and expense for a vendor.  If it would be just as easy to take an order via email or phone, then most would simply stop doing shows and save on the headaches.  Packing up animals for a show, then bringing them back and unpacking them, then packing them up again for a shipment would be quite a burden to be placing on most people if several people request this of them.

What this all boils down to is that anyone that is flying into a show has to know what they are facing beforehand.  If you are unprepared, you may have a real disappointment on hand when you show up at the airport with snakes shoved in your pockets.  Vendors are not attending the shows and treating them as a gallery for people to pick out their animals for later shipments.  They are taking animals there with the hopes that they will be sold there and taken possession by the buyers.

Many vendors, of course, will be willing to accomodate an exceptional case where they do bring back the animals and ship them out for the customer.  But this should be the exception rather than the rule.  Remember that most animal breeders have had to take out several days from their normal work schedule to do a show, and when they get back they have to work like mad to try to catch up on those missed days.