Bad Guy MATT OAKLEY

[ForkedTung]

I see at least a temporary 'ban' on the horizon, can anyone else from the fantasy "cliq" see it?

 

[Dennis Hultman]

That's enough. Everyone needs to keep to the subject of this thread.

Just a few reminders. We don't tolerate profanity or antagonism of the Moderators here. Keep this thread on topic. I received several messages since this thread started regarding several posts that could be viewed as prejudicial remarks. If it is clear that the remarks are intended as such the appropriate action will take place. We don't tolerate Racist or Prejudicial Remarks here, period. It doesn't matter who the member is that made such a remark. They don't get a free pass. Suggesting such, I consider antagonism of the Moderators that represent this site and are dedicated to its success.

There has been enough sidetracking here.

also i love the whole "cliq" thing that goes on in this place. you disagree with a "elite" member and in rolls the neg karma. again the karma system is a fucking joke.

Sorry all but i have to agree with this one

If either one of you have a problem with the way this site is run take to the feedback section.

FaunaClassifieds Feedback Forum
Anything of a nature concerning this website, moderators, admin, or anything having to do with how it is being run, should go here. Criticism is welcome, but abusive antagonism is not.
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=44

Regardless if you do or don't, you are done sidetracking this thread.

 

[scaledverts]

To bring this thread back ON TOPIC!!

I am going to play a bit of devils advocate if you will......

Matt, as everyone has stated already.... crappy shipping job. No question about that in anyone's (including your) mind.

I have never dealt with Matt, so I really have no experience with doing business with him. Regarding his animals, yes I saw the pics of his setups and I agree with some of the other posters that some of those containers are WAY too small for large bloods or some of the other large constrictors he has (I use a similar size tub for juvenile kingsnakes). I also do not see the connection between the cleanliness of his apartment/home and the cleanliness of his snakes. SOME of his tanks had some condensation issues with them but that can happen in a matter of hours if the snake dumps its water dish and there is no substrate to soak it up. However, never having been to see his set-up in person I will not speculate as to the typical condition he keeps his snakes in.

All of that being said, Trevor I have a some questions for you. Looking over the vet reports in detail shows me that during both of the initial visits, both recorded on 7/1/09, the vet found that the snake appeared normal and healthy and that there was no need for treatment for a respiratory infection at this time. Not until two FULL weeks later did the vet run the tests by taking oral swabs from the snake but only because you insisted that it be done (the notes say you requested the tests). It IS possible to over-treat a snake and cause more problems than were originally there. Fenbendazole (panacur) in particular can have drastic effects if the animal is not kept hydrated during treatment (not to mention it has NOTHING to do with a respiratory issue, the vet was merely broad spectrum treating for parasites). Looking at the reports in their entirety I see that you and the vet tried a total of 3 different medications within ~3 weeks and then finally moving to baytril during the final stages. This is a lot of antibiotics to be pushing through an animal. The vet also never notes mites on the snake until the 13th (again two weeks later). I also agree with other posters that looking over the posts from the other ball python forum, I see no mites on this snake at the time of the photos.

TWO WEEKS is a lifetime for a snake to develop problems. Please explain your quarantine procedures so we can make sure that there is not a possibility that during quarantine the snake got too cold etc. I have very little experience with bloods, however I have seen snakes develop respiratory wheezes REALLY quickly. Also, just to make sure we are on the same page blood pythons are, by their very nature, very "hissy" and this is not a sign of a respiratory infection.

I am just trying to reconcile the issues I have with the treatment of the snake and the claims that the snake was sick when it arrived but the vet noted that it appeared normal and healthy. And that's coming from a vet.

 

[Slipmattic]

Scaledverts ... They can also develop URI from to dry of humidity. I am not saying that it was in this situation but this is a possibility. I have read threw a few different BOI threads about Matt Oakley and all the other ones were good remarks other than the one with shipping rodents. I in fact almost bought a Hogg island X from him awhile back, but i didnt have the funds. Anyway, hopefully this issue gets resolved...

 

[Angeduh]

To bring this thread back ON TOPIC!!


I am just trying to reconcile the issues I have with the treatment of the snake and the claims that the snake was sick when it arrived but the vet noted that it appeared normal and healthy. And that's coming from a vet.

Read what the vet stated afterwards during his initial exam. Upon first examining the snake he appeared healthy. During exam the snake regurgitated liquid and mucus so the vet gave him meds. Why give a healthy snake meds?

 

[Angeduh]

Read what the vet stated afterwards during his initial exam. Upon first examining the snake he appeared healthy. During exam the snake regurgitated liquid and mucus so the vet gave him meds. Why give a healthy snake meds?

Sorry -Full name: Angela Atkinson

 

[scaledverts]

Read what the vet stated afterwards during his initial exam. Upon first examining the snake he appeared healthy. During exam the snake regurgitated liquid and mucus so the vet gave him meds. Why give a healthy snake meds?

I did! He said "Snake did get bery excited during exam and ended up regurgitating a small amount of liquid and mucous" Snakes will do that if they do not like what you are doing to them. On top of that, as I stated in my post, fenbendazole (panacur) is given for internal parasites NOT a respiratory infection. So to answer your question, he was treating a snake that was not sick with a dewormer as a precaution as most vets will do. Also, look at 7/1, during the SECOND visit the vet again stated that the snake appeared normal!

Again, I ask that Trevor come back and help me reconcile the vet's statements.

 

[BSM1]

I was going to buy a few animals a few months ago but thank god i changed my mind. The animals looked healthy in his ad, but now i dont know what to think. I was today going to buy a few leopard geckos from him that not many people have available right now and after i have read this and other threads as well as emails from 3 different people telling me not to buy from him. The evidence in the various threads look to be true and thank you guys for pushing me away from this guy


Thanks,
Bryan McAdams

 

[casketmaker]

This is the PM from Matt that I received...
---------------------------------------------------


Does that look like a sick animal to you?? Would you yourself keep an animal the was covered with mited when you got it? Would you then feed it, plan on breeding it, and post it on the net to show everyone how nice it was??

I bought a pair of Hypo het albino boa's from Matt this summer and when I received them they were the nicest looking hypo's I had ever held in my hands but when feeding time came around I noticed mites on them. I have 7 other snakes in my collection and have never had a single mite before I bought these snakes from Matt. Lucky for me I decided to keep them separate from my other collection as a quarantine so none of my other snakes got mites.

Matt said "Would you yourself keep an animal the was covered with mited when you got it?" I answer YES. He also did not tell me how bad the temperament was of the male but since they are hypos I guess I kinda expected it. So there were mites and a bad temperament but I still kept the animals and treated them.

As for packaging the two snakes were in a snake bag and the geckos were in deli cups and they were shipped in an insulated box. He did a good job on the shipping side of my order but I am not thrilled about the mites.

The geckos had issues as well. One of them to this day refuses to eat. I have to force feed her if I want her to eat. I really doubt I will be able to breed that one but they are both real pretty so I keep them. After noticing the mites on the snakes I also treated these girls with a bath and PAM.

In my opinion after I told him about the mites he should have offered to pay for the PAM that I had to buy but all he told me is that he treats all his cages so he doubts that the mites came from him.

If these animals were not so nice looking I would have demanded a refund but the breeder of the snakes is a well known breeder and I was impressed with the color so I decided to keep them, mites and all.

My experience was not as bad as the person who started this thread but it looks like there is a pattern of mites coming from Matt. If you don't mind getting mites free with your purchase then Matt does have some nice "looking" animals but as for me I will probably not buy anymore from him unless he includes a can of PAM with every order.

 

[Slipmattic]

Can anyone say revolving door for mites?

 

[EastCoastReptiles171]

This is to: xanaxez (Bo Barrett)
Yes, I took that pic. WHEN I WAS 17! And what did I spend the money on? Snakes like I always do. What were you doing at 17? I’m sure you didn’t graduate from one of the best high schools in your state with an athletic scholarship to UMCP.

This is to: critical bill (Chuck Kimmel) for his statement:
“Thats a lot of food stamps.”
It seems to me as if you’re trying to imply that now or in the past I or my family has been on welfare/been forced to use food stamps which is not true at all. I thought people used food stamps to buy food when they’re on welfare. I really don’t see the relation between cash and foodstamps, obviously you know more about the subject than I.

This is to MiIguanaLvr (Beth Moody) statement:
“The good news would be that if this guy is a typical example of a thug, we know that brain power is not a strong point.”

And Timothy neville for his statement:
Does this guy really think that little $1,000 he is holding is a lot of money? What a chump, he is a loser and needs to get lost. He is making our hobby look ghetto, we don't need these thugs around.

Yes, Tim most teenagers would feel that $1000 is a lot of money as did I.

Thug? NOTHING about me says thug.
When I think of the word thug I think of someone who is ghetto, ignorant (educationwise), sells drugs, has no real job, wears their clothes a couple of sizes to big with their pants hanging off their butt and might even have gold teeth and tattoos – none of this describes me at all.

I went to an all boys private school for most of my life

I got A’s and B’s all throughout school (even in college where I was placed in advanced classes and was a vet tech major – I passed that class with a 96 average)

I spent 2 months in the 7th grade and was put into the 8th grade because my test scores were all on the 8th-12th grade level

I was valedictorian when I graduated the 8th grade with an A average

I hardly ever listen to rap music (which I’m sure you’d stereotypically assumed)

I’m educated and speak as such

I have never done any unprescribed drug, EVER and never will (which I’m sure most 22 year olds cannot honestly say)

I live by myself and have my own car (which I pay/paid) for myself. I’m never late on my rent and paid for my car with cash that I earned legally at my job which I have worked at for almost 7 years. How many people my age can keep the same job for that amount of time? I just got another promotion and am paid 3x as much as I was when I started

I’m definitely not racist as some of my best friends are from other races, though some of the people who have said things about me do seem to be. The only reason I mention this is because being racist definitely is related to being ignorant in the since of not knowing that’s why many people who have never come into contact with snakes are scared of them

I became a top ranked wrestling competitor in my state in a matter of 3 years and went on to become a 3x state placer and 2x All-American (which is on the national level)

I can correctly pronounce all of my vocabulary unlike the type of person that comes to my mind when someone says “thug.”

I have volunteered at nature centers, the Baltimore Zoo and The National Aquarium. The director of the program told me herself that out of the 75 students chosen for the program I was the most knowledgeable when it came to animals. In college I turned it a report on blood pythons that I had written while in the Aquarium program when I was 15. I received an A on that report.

I do not go out partying and drinking like many people my age as I have more important priorities

I have one of the best collections of anyone I know besides people who have been breeding since before I was born or was very young

I have spent well over $100k on my animals and everything related to them in the past couple of years

I started my myspace for me when I was a teenager, as a personal page, not to sell snakes

I say all this to say; I do not speak like a thug, I do not dress like a thug, I do not think like a thug, I do not carry myself like a thug, and I do not look like a thug, unless you’re only seeing at the stereotypical race of a “thug.”

This is to: xanaxez (Bo Barrett)
The definition of “internet gangster” is someone who threatens to harm someone over the internet. I referred to someone as an internet gangster because he stated on the internet that if I had called him an ass he would beat me up etc... In the situation he was the “internet gangster”, not me, but apparently you didn’t catch the concept and started referring to me as the “internet gangster.” Seems kind of funny considering that I’m supposed to the “sharp as a marble” one here. You keep posting the pic like a child trying to take the thread off topic and make me look bad, it’s really not that hard to see. Have you never done anything that looked bad?? You must be perfect.

I shipped the way I did because someone shipped snakes to me like that and all arrived fine, so I did the same, haven’t had a doa since 05’ when the driver placed a package on the persons back porch, the guy didn’t find it until 2 days later and I still refunded his money. Yes, I shipped incorrectly in the past, not with snakes just thrown in a box not even in a snake bag like the pic shows, it was taken with items being removed first. When I asked if the pic showed exactly how the snake was received the question was avoided. When the post on the animal was started and everyone was saying how nice she was someone asked where the who the animal came from and this question was also ignored. I also said I’d correct my substandard shipping methods and I have not shipped incorrectly since and have had about 30 customers in the last couple of weeks. I can’t change the past, only the future.

I’ve seen a lot of nontruthful things said about me on forums from people who ive never dealt with as far as saying they purchased snakes from me when they never had, that I robbed someone stealing all their snakes, that I’m banned from expos and the list goes on but they never seem to have proof and say they heard it from someone else…

The standard size enclosure I was keeping any blood over 3.5’ was a minimum of 4’x2’x18” which you can see from my pics. The only time they’ve been in anything smaller were 74qt tubs which are just under 4’ in length.

I haven’t really been following this thread, but have seen bits and pieces this is to particular people, but I do not have time to go back and find out who:
Someone mentioned the saw pics of cages that had poop in them on my page and from seeing that pic the came to the conclusion that all of my cages were filthy and my snakes unhealthy. It seems to me that only when someone looks at my pics with the intent to find something to criticize to I ever hear anything but positive comments on it and my animals. Everyone here has had a cage with poop in it at one time or another, I was just the naive teenager that took a pic of it. If I didn’t does that mean my snakes don’t poop? No. Since I did does that mean all of my cages have poop in them? No. My snakes poop just like everyone else and I clean it up, just like everyone else…

~Matt Oakley

 

[Helenthereef]

I think this may be the most coherent post I've ever seen on BOI.

 

[hbird619]

Just to add to this thread, I have heard that Matt is a good guy from some reputable sources. And it is always hard to just label someone as a bad breeder because an animal they sent you doesn't eat. Even though captive bred animals acclimate much easier than wild caught specimens, there is no guarentee when the animal goes from one environment to another that it will automatically acclimate properly. I think it is much easier to acclimate hatchlings when receiving them because they are just starting out. But when buying a captive bred adult from someone, people have to realize that the person most likely kept the animal under the same conditions for its entire life. The animal gets shipped in a box, and then thrust into a new environment all of a sudden, and is expected to eat well and be 100% healthy. The slightest condition change like the temperature difference in a person's house can throw a reptile off. Most reptile enthusiasts want to label a snake "sick" the minute it doesn't eat or acts different. It seems that both situations in which Matt is labeled the bad guy is after an established juvenile/adult snake isn't doing so well. And both happen to be notorious problem feeder species. I am not saying Matt is right, and I am not saying the customers are wrong. I am just saying that maybe the snakes had acclimation issues. It is very difficult to duplicate a set-up that someone kept an animal in for years, even if you set the enclosure up exactly the same way.

 

[Montoya]

It doesen't make sense

This thread just bashes on Matt for issues outside the topic. I think Matt's explanation is a very well thought out response and he shouldn't have to defend himself from stereotypical remarks made by some here. Matt seems like a very hard working ambitious guy who has made some mistakes and hopefully learned from it and will get better as time goes on. It seems Matt does have some problems though with mites, and not being able to settle problems and lets them get out of control. This type of damage to your reputation was not worth the money involved especially after you realized early on the shipping method was bad. You will have to provide a much better level of customer service moving forward to salvage any chance of success in the future.

 

[Haydenphoto]

This thread just bashes on Matt for issues outside the topic. I think Matt's explanation is a very well thought out response and he shouldn't have to defend himself from stereotypical remarks made by some here. Matt seems like a very hard working ambitious guy who has made some mistakes and hopefully learned from it and will get better as time goes on. It seems Matt does have some problems though with mites, and not being able to settle problems and lets them get out of control. This type of damage to your reputation was not worth the money involved especially after you realized early on the shipping method was bad. You will have to provide a much better level of customer service moving forward to salvage any chance of success in the future.

Look at some of the pics of where he lives ( where he keeps his snakes ) and then think about what your saying ! It's a mess who knows what else is lurking beside the mites !

 

[Montoya]

I hear you but...

I guess what is lost in translation to some is remarks about being a thug, racial stereotyping, and personal attacks are not needed. He has issues, anyone reading the thread can see that, even those that have good transactions. He has some methods that must change and basic husbandry issues to deal with. I hope he fixes these things but continuing to engage with off topic remarks like those makes me rethink contributing here.

 

[BSM1]

Who cares how he lives, it was from like 1 or 2 pics and it doesn't have a date and how dont you know he wasnt moving stuff around. You just thing the worst possible thing and maybe its your racial views that has your mind so twisted

It doesnt matter, this whole thread looks so bad with all the racial statements and it started all over one pic of him when he was 17 thats sure amazing

 

[Haydenphoto]

Who cares how he lives, it was from like 1 or 2 pics and it doesn't have a date and how dont you know he wasnt moving stuff around. You just thing the worst possible thing and maybe its your racial views that has your mind so twisted

It doesnt matter, this whole thread looks so bad with all the racial statements and it started all over one pic of him when he was 17 thats sure amazing

? what racial views ? You better think before you open your mouth i have never said anything about color ! This has nothing to do with color it's a few like you that keep bringing the race card up ! Go look at his myspace . Would you buy an animal from pet store that was a mess and the cages had crap all over well i have to say i would NOT and that is my point so go play your race card some place else ! Unreal you bring that crap up .

 

[nixer]

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=32&de=711597

like the pics in this ad? they look really dirty to me

 

[DAND]

Just in case he pulls them.

The first one seems to have 2 snakes in the tub. I can only guess the one being held and pictured was housed there too. Why else would the tub be open?