Mr. Wessels is nothing but a con-artist and animal abuser. He has seemed to have moved out of the animal business and onto scamming people in the custom PC world.
He gave me a normal female retic in January 2010. She was perfectly healthy in every way. Apparently, this was the exception.
I did know him throughout 2009-2012. I modded his forums for a bit, and I saw his animals back in June 2010 and again in October 2011. Nothing was out of the ordinary with the snakes except that I noticed he was letting his dogs and cats breed rather liberally, and all of them had varying intensities of flea allergy dermatitis.
In September or October 2010, Harry and I parted ways when he got angry at a friend of mine whose mother was dying of cancer. Harry was mad that my friend (another mod) couldn't make it down to one of his "Monster Bashes". Harry then found it necessary to inform me via PM what a bad friend and moderator the guy had been. Harry called him a "snake killer" due to an accident involving a retic Harry had given him that had been severely maimed by a cat later on. My friend felt awful about that, and it wasn't much more than an accident. I decided to go with my gut and stick with my friend, who is still one of my best friends to this day. His mom passed away in November of that year.
A couple of the old mods (along with my friend) decided that maybe he was just having a bad day and decided to forgive the guy after the fact. Apparently, he didn't know how serious the cancer was and he apologized whole heartedly.... Or so we thought.
When I visited in 2011 I brought my friend Court Roles with me. She began living at the guest house on his property with her husband and daughter soon after. Everything seemed well, until Harry made Courtney confront me for talking to someone HE didn't like, back in August of 2012. This is a common theme with Harry. If he doesn't like something you say or someone you associate with, he'll either bully you himself or make on of his "mods" or "friends" bully you in to submitting to his demands. I KNOW he made Court say this, and since she was living on his property I figured he'd kick her out if she didn't do what he asked. She has a kid, so I know she was thinking of keeping a roof over her head. Court and I were really great friends before this.
However, once confronted, I basically told them both where they could stick it, because I'll be damned that I'm going to drop who I'm talking to because of some grown man with with an attitude problem. I already forgave him once for childish and inconsiderate behavior when my friend's mom was very ill, I wasn't about to let this time slide. He decided to confront me on the day my dog was hit and killed by a car. It seems he loves to pick times where people are grieving or suffering to tell them what horrible friends they are to him.
Fast forward to August/September of this year, and I am contacted by a friend of Court's with some very alarming photos. He wanted to know if these animals were Harry's and was asking me if I could verify since I had been out there. They most certainly were, and I was a bit shocked to see that Harry, who was SO outspoken against animal abuse could starve his 14ft male retic to the point of looking like a file snake, keep several snakes in their own excrement, and all the while maintain a facade over the internet that everything was still fine and dandy. I did contact Court when I found out she took the images. She gave me a timeline on their happening, and I'm only providing a few, but there are at least 50 spanning over the course of several months. She is without a PC but can come in and provide her account of what happened.
These are cell phone photos so the quality isn't great, but you can see the overall conditions. I can vouch that these are his due to the cage decor and the animals themselves. The most horrible one is the 14ft male albino. This one especially hits me hard because this is the father to the snake I have from him, and I held him when he was healthy.
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rakels87, on Flickr
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rakels87, on Flickr
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rakels87, on Flickr
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rakels87, on Flickr
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rakels87, on Flickr
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rakels87, on Flickr
As these pictures started circulating, it was found that Harry Wessels of Monster snakes used to be "Sonny Wessels of Ozark Herps". He was scamming as early as 1999-2001 or so. Here's a very early BOI thread:
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/inquiry2/posts/1126.html
You won't find any of his forums or FB groups concerning snakes open any more. He knows about these photos and has gone into hiding. He is now saying his wife has cancer to try and make the neglect look like something other than sheer apathy. He and his wife started neglecting the animals around the time he started building custom PCs.
I am very ashamed to have associated with this person at all. I'm glad I got an animal from him that happens to be healthy and I love very much. But there are lots of others who were not so lucky and I hope they post their accounts here on this thread.
STAY AWAY FROM THIS GUY!
