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Bad Guy JWI (Joe Imperatori) selling Sri Lankan stars

starry night

starry night

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Hi,
My name is Jeremy Deville and I want to tell you about my experience with a breeder that I found on Kingsnake.com. The breeder, Joe Imperatori, goes under the name of JWI on kingsnake.com. This was my first time to purchase an animal offline and I have learned a hard lesson from it. I found him on the site and saw pictures of his adult Sri Lankan stars and was blown away from what I saw. I talked to many different breeders who also sell on kingsnake and they spoke good about him even though none of them had ever done business with him. I spoke to him first by email then by phone and decided to purchase and baby Sri Lankan star from him. On 3/12/2009 I mailed him a postal money order overnight for the amount of $700. I then received my baby tortoise and in a few days into taking care of him I noticed that he was defecating very runny and loose. I then took him to the vet to find out that he had an entomeba infection and they gave me an oral antibiotic to put on his food. This did not seem to work because he would not touch his food with the medicine on it and i was lucky enough to get the medicine into his mouth only twice when he yawned. I then took the tortoise to a vet school at Louisiana State University. From there they found that he also had geradia and fluke eggs. They admitted the tortoise into the vet hospital for a week to try and fight off the infection. After the week was over he began eating better but still had some infection. His immune system got very weak and he ended up developing pneumonia and had to be put back in the vet hospital again for a second time. Long story short, I spent well over $500 in vet bills and my time and stress worrying if the animal would die or not. From the beginning I told Joe about the tortoise being sick and he told me that the animal was fine when he mailed him to me. I later sent him an email telling him that I wished to speak to him about this problem and he told me that vets only go to school to push expensive drugs on people. He told me that he only guaranteed "live arrival" of the animal and nothing more. I understand that, but anyone can sell you a live animal that is very sick. I talked with several other breeders and asked them what they would have done and they said they would have taken the animal back from me and gave me another one and then they would have accepted the responsibility of its well being. I am posting a conversation by email between Joe and I so that you all may see it be aware before you or anyone you know might purchase from him.
 
Does this person have a website or did they have anything outlining their health gauruntee on their sale ad? If not (though i do not agree with this in any way) the seller is only required to stick to the health garuntee they have outlined. IE if the seller said health garunteed for the first 48 hours or 5 days or only live arrival garunteed than that is all they are "required" to stand by. Now is it good business practice to ship out an animal that after 4 days turns out to be very sick and tell the customer "oh well so sorry" no but it is done. I am sorry for your situation and wish the seller would help you out with the situation.

On a side note how is the tortoise doing?
 
No he has nothing in the add about health guarantee or live arrival or anything. I'm not mad about any of that but only about the way he handled the situation. Ceylon, the tortoise, is finally doing good and eating great but only maintaining weight at this point. I will be monitoring his weight closely to see how he starts to gain. His poor body has been through a lot and he probably is still recovering. Thanks for the inquiry.
 
i wont pretend to know the first thing about toroises or how they grow. But i hope that he catches up and grows like he is supposed to. It really sucks that you were just told its your problem. But things like that tend to follow someone.
 
Even the vet was pissed by the comment he made about vets that they only go to school to push expensive medicine onto people. Yeah, I'm sure they spend half their life in school just for that!
 
i will say that the use of harsh prescription medication in animals is sometimes abused but considering what all was wrong with the tortoise i feel they were correct in prescribing meds.
 
starry night said:
the comment he made about vets that they only go to school to push expensive medicine onto people. Yeah, I'm sure they spend half their life in school just for that!
Click to expand...

I start pre-vet soon, and that reason's not even in my mind. My husband's a pharmacist, and he doesn't push the expensive stuff either. More often than not, he'll recommend a generic if given the choice or an OTC. Sounds to me like someone who doesn't believe in taking animals to the vet when something is wrong.

I was unable to open you attached document, could you please copy and paste the back and forth? Have you got any items from the vet you could scan to show what was done?
 
email from the word document for anyone who can not open it

Joe,
I don't want to cause any problems, but this tortoise has become very sick and is now in the LSU vet hospital. I have now spent over $500 in vet bills. I think you and I need to speak in person about this matter and see if I can somehow get another tortoise because they do not think this one is going to make it. Please provide me with your contact number again.

Jeremy. Then we seem to have a problem. The tortoise was fine and in perfect health ever since I hatched it out in December and I hoped that we wouldn't go here. It was perfectly healthy when I shipped it to you. Then, you claim that you noticed that the tortoise's stool samples where green and took it upon yourself to take it to a Vet. that did not even know that Sri Lankan Star tortoises were naturally pryamided as a marker trait. You then gave your consent and had the Vet. give the tortoise a prescription "drug". Etc., Etc. I was fair with you from the beginning and told you that I guarantee a live arrival of the tortoise and nothing else. I cannot give anymore of a guarantee for the animals, as I do not have any control over what care any animal gets once they leave my hands. No, breeder in the "Country" would give you any more or imply and such kind of waranty of live stock as you have recommended. And about the $500 for Vet. Bills, well, that is exactly why Vet.'s went to school, to push prescription drugs and rack up the bill for their customers. I am truly sorry things have turned out this way for you. Joe.
 
If that baby had all of those issues with the breeder, then they are all sick. Some of these illnesses/micro organisms are highly contagious. A good breeder would at least get a fecal done from the other babies to confirm one way or another that the issue did or did not originate with him because all of his babies could be at risk.



I am glad that your baby is at least stable. I hope he starts to thrive soon. He has been through a lot for a youngster. :(
 
If you don't know I named him after his homeland. Ceylon is what Sir Lanka is formerly known as so he is just like the people of his homeland. He is a survivor. He is eating like a champ now and eating much more diverse foods and hays and even cactus pads that I just got for him. Lets see how he will start to grow.
 
Thank you Shadera for making me aware of this thread as I just joined to reply to this unjust and ridiculous thread. As everyone is fully aware, there are always 2 sides two every story. I feel everyone should hear the truth since "Jeremy" has neglected to leave out some very important facts. Everything I will be stating in this thread is 100% true and correct and have e-mails that Jeremy Deville neglected to share with you. Not surprised at all.

First, my name is Joe Imperatori and I am a private breeder of Sri Lankan Star Tortoises. I sold a very well started and healthy Sri Lankan Star that was about 3 months old back in March of this year (2009). Based on looking at the accusations and comments made, I think a timeline of events would very simply clear things up.

1st. - Friday March 13, 2009- $700 received from Jeremy for Tortoise. (It was Friday so we agreed it would be best if the tortoise was shipped out Monday.)

2nd- Monday March 16, 2009- Tortoise was shipped out with Priority overnight service and email with tracking number is sent to Jeremy Deville.)

3rd. Tuesday March 17, 2009- Tortoise arrives safely at Jeremy's workplace in Baton Rouge, La. Jeremy sends me email confirmation that: " All is well and tortoise is doing fine."

4th. Almost 2 weeks have passed and no contact from Jeremy. It is now 3/30/09 and I get an email from Jeremy stating the tortoise is eating well and moving around good but his poop was a little soft. He states that he has just taken it in to the LSU Vet. School and the tortoise was given some anitbiotics. Same email Jeremy states that he "feels horrible like he is"not giving his animals the proper care." Jeremy had also killed his Indian Star tortoise while resting a heat pack on top of the container while shipping it out to someone in California(emails continue with progress of tortoise into April 09' meanwhile Jeremy is calling other breeders bad mouthing me.)

5th. 7/22/09- Jeremy sends me an email that the tortoise is doing fine and he wants to do business with me again and possibly buy 2 more Sri Lankans from me. (Not sure why he would want to do business with me again- Remember he claimed I treated him very badly???)

6th. 8/4/09- Jeremy contacts Kingsnake.com abuse dept. and has a strike imposed on my account. I am then contacted by Kingsnake. I then send Kingsnake all of my supportive evidence (all the e-mails I am telling you about) and Kingsnake immediately removes the strike against my account. Sorry Jeremy, didn't work. I have always had a perfect record with Kingsnake.

7th. 8/6/09- This ridiculous thread is started by Jeremy Deville and he only tells the good people of the BOI the partial truth.

Everything I have stated is 100% true and correct. I am not sure how to post all the email evidence on this thread. But, I would be more than happy to do so if someone could assist me with that.

Jeremy, you have gone out of your way to bash me with other breeders, Kingsnake.com, and now potential customers that visit the BOI. And now, you ask me to send you a "free tortoise"??? I only like to deal with good people!

5th. 7/22/09 - Jeremy send me an email- "
 
Joe,
Lets not forget to leave out that you the animal had 3 different parasites and Fluke eggs in its poop. I have more than enough vet evidence to back up that fact. How can a "captive bred" tortoise get that many parasites. We will settle our differences in court.
 
I must admit that, if true, the presence of al those paresites and problems would lead me to beleive i'd either bought from a breeder with poor husbandry, quarentine and medical practices or i'd been sold a WC juvenile and been lied to about it's status of CB.


Is it usual for a three month old CB tort to have such an issue with paresites? Do you not routinely treat your adult breeders? Don't offspring get treated before being offered for sale?

THe only other possibility is they were picked up in the new owners care but I know almost nothing about Chelonia nor how long paresites like those take to develop in this species. Must they have come from the breeder or could they have been contracted while with thier new owner?
 
I want to see vet reports posted up here. All those parasites do sound bad, but two weeks elapsed between the tortoise arriving and the tortoise going to the vet.

Both sides really need to post a lot more info. It sounds like the buyer is withholding more information at this point.
 
It doesn't surprise me at all that two weeks lapsed between arrival and onset. Animals can carry parasite loads and not show signs for awhile until they get stressed. It is entirely reasonable that the tortoise had the parasites and only showed signs after being shipped and set up in a new place. That is one of the reasons you quarantine.

The vet should be able to tell, based on parasite populations, roughly how long the infection has been present. On worming cb babies, that should not be necessary. Remember that torts hatch from eggs and aren't at risk of exposure to parasites unless they are exposed to them after hatching. They are born clean. That is one of the reasons that cb reptiles should be more appealing than wc, because they are at least theoretically "clean". I am not sure if there are certain types of parasites that can cross into the egg, but I don't think giardia is one of them.
 
I asked for vet items days ago and the OP never even acknowledged the question but had time to respond to pats on the back. I would think if someone had that stuff and was in the right, they'd have been quick to post it. And full emails as well, not just a word document that can't be opened. :shrug01: Full disclosure is always needed to validate any claim of a bad guy.

If he was so unhappy with the first animal, why was he offering to buy more?
 
I will scan the vet reports asap and get them posted. I have plenty of stuff from the vet and just need to find a scanner and how to post them. I have never posted scanned material before so please be patient with me and I will have it posted asap.
 
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