I have a copy of that post, Thomas.
Here you go, guys!
>Posted by: BrianSmith at Mon Oct 27 15:32:54 2003 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email
>Message ]
>
>Hey, I don't blame you one bit. I would be the exact same way. But you see,
>this was part of the genius of the assassination campaign. To mix in a dose
>of truth to a pack of lies to lend the lies merrit. The only truth in the
>whole thing is that my real name is not Brian Smith. But this was never
>intended to decieve anyone, or to "hide behind a false name". (not from
>fellow herpers, anyway). In fact, it was never my intention to use the name
>for all this posting and whatnot. All that just got carried away. Here are
>the facts:
>
>When I first got back into this business a couple of years ago, it was
>after taking a decade long break from it. Prior to 1991 I was a fairly
>large breeder of pythons and boas and to a lesser extent, smaller species
>too. When I first began producing a great deal of offspring and selling
>them relatively cheap, it infurriated a lot of the pet store owners that
>were well known for reptiles. One of them was Slither City, owned by a
>slime ball named Wes. I'm sure that many of you reading this can guess one
>of the other reptile based pet shops here in So Cal that was involved in
>shutting me down. Concerted efforts were made to put me out of business at
>all costs since my inexpensive offspring were threatening their retail
>market. At first it was annoying things like the fish and game and animal
>control being called on me to try to legally shut me down. When this didn't
>work sick snakes were sold to me by annonymous third parties to infect my
>breeding colonies. This eventually took its toll and worked. My snakes got
>sick and died and I couldn't keep up with the vet bills and nothing was
>working anyway (antibiotics). I finally sold out and just gave up.
>
>So a couple of years ago, when I decided to get back into the game, I
>remembered all of this and decided to try to not let it be known that it
>was me that was getting back into this. All of the treachery and ruthless
>sabatoge I wanted to avoid. So I went to a breeder that I always felt I
>could trust. One that I had always felt was honorable, trustworthy and
>good. And I explained how I wanted to get back into this business big, but
>wanted to remain annonymous during the building years. I explained what the
>pet store guys did and wanted to avoid a repeat of that. He said he
>understood and had no problem with it. Little did I realize then that he
>was best friends with one of my mortal enemies (two now).
>
>A few months into buying morphs and building stock I lost a very big albino
>laby that I bought sick and tried to save. I spent over 700 at the vet and
>she died the night after I got her. So I put her skin on ebay to try to
>recoup my losses. One of the people in a certain reptile forum saw the skin
>auction and posted about it and criticized it and criticized the seller
>(me) as barbaric and all things bad. So I went to defend this. Try to keep
>in mind that I never intended to post in any forums. I was pulled into this
>one with the need to explain the situation and that I loved the snake, if
>even for a day and what had transpired to form the event.
>
>Things were bumpy at first, but I eventually smoothed it out and I found
>that I liked posting and sharing thoughts and info. But I had a tremendous
>personality conflict with one of the moderators of that site. We had
>serious words, it got very heated and ugly and I honestly thought that
>because I was spending untold thousands with the breeder that owned that
>site that he would back me up. I couldn't have been further from the truth.
>Not only did he not back me up, he told his friend (the moderator) all my
>real information (name, etc). So the moderator guy thought it would just be
>the most wonderful thing to post all my information to discredit me, and
>somewhere in the mix to implant a rumor that I was a theif and had ripped
>people off, including but not limited to a burguralry of Prehistoric Pets.
>To give him credit, this was quite a masterful stroke and it did damage me
>a bit. I lost a few sales and some close associates that I had built and
>known under the name that I never intended to post under in the first
>place. At first I couldn't believe all this and I was baffled by the sheer
>ruthlessness of it. But in retrospect it all makes perfect sense. This
>moderator guy is a breeder too. And I am future competition. It is the old
>days revisited. And so it bagan to make a LOT of sense. Then, I saw the
>same thing done repeatedly to anyone else that popped up that had/has a lot
>of snakes and had obvious intentions of doing some serious breeding or
>introducing something new (morph-wise). That's why I raised an eyebrow when
>I read the Whitefeather assassination. It made me wonder just how much lie
>was melded to little bits of truth in order to take down a potential
>competitor. If you are curious to see the lengths that this moderator guy
>goes to to make one look bad, just go read the thread on the BOI. It
>reminds me of an overly aggressive little poodle that won't let go of a
>pant leg.
>
>As for me,. I'm not too concerned about myself anymore. I know a lot of
>people already that know the story and are hip to these guy's undermining,
>discrediting ways. Sure, I'm still angry about what was done to me. And I
>do have every intention of setting things right. I have nothing but time.
>And I haven't lost, nor will I. You see, the only way I can lose is if
>someone comes through my window while I'm asleep and murders me. Otherwise
>I am very much alive and getting stronger and paybacks are way cool. In the
>meantime I am joining forces with others that have been wronged and are
>currently being done wrong the same way I was. I could have easily done it
>alone, but hey, more strength in numbers, right?
>
>The bottom line Shaun (and anyone else reading this) is that I promise you
>that the reptile world will be a much nicer place in a couple of short
>years.
>
>My real name is Damon.
>
Egads! The formatting is a little wonky. I'd clean it up but I'd rather not alter it in any way.
Slackass claimed that Damon refused to show pictures of his animals and I find that incredibly hard to believe.