My reply
Hello all,
First off I would like to apologize for my delayed response to this thread. I was out of town from Jan 26th to Feb 4th on personal business(My auto response on my email as well as answering machine would have noted this to anyone who tried to email or call). The response was further delayed because Josh Mease and I have been trying to work this issue out reasonably, without any name bashing(although he took the first step in that).There are many aspects of this story that I cannot get into as my attorney has instructed me to refrain from getting into specific details quite yet on public forums , but this is a shortened version with the best interests of all parties involved in mind.
Josh Mease of the Chamaeleo Research Group(
www.chamresearch.com) first emailed me about two years ago asking me to be a distributor for MBT reptile farm in Tanzania(which specializes in breeding old world chameleons) and I willingly accepted. I would be the one who handled the importation of the shipments and we would split all charges, and I would forward his end of the shipment via delta dash to him. I share shipments all the time with other sellers and I figured this would be no different. Many delays happened(once again I have to refrain from specifics at this time) in which the shipment did not go through. My original order, which was placed over a year ago, called for farm raised animals which would be coming under WC permits( this is a known practice and you can legally export CB animals as WC but you cannot do vice versa). Those first permits for my end of the shipment were issued last august, and the shipment finally shipped this January so allot of time went by that stock could have changed but I did not think much of it. During our dealings, Josh was very hesitant for me to call the supplier(Joe Beraducci of MBT animal farm) in Tanzania and he instructed me not to call or email Joe, but to deal with him and he will forward any questions or news to him. When the animals came in, I assumed that my original order had been filled, But a few of the animals looked too large to be farmed(I assumed that they were probably old breeders, and they were sent due to lack of stock or items were out of season) but I did not think much of it. At that point, the animals were brought in under WC permits but I was under the impression that my original order had been filled asking for specifics like: red rudis, new locale dermensis, and sub adult farmed melleri(I have the original order saved if anyone would like to see it). Due to the excitement of the shipment that we had been waiting about two years for animals were advertised before we talked to the supplier about the specifics of the animals on that shipment.Keep in mind that I was not permitted to call Joe and did not want there to be any further arguing, so I made the assumption that the original order was what I had and continued with my advertisements. At this time I did not know that the animals may be WC, and I was under the impression that if they were Josh would have said something especially since 10 days had gone by since the initial advertisements had been placed. Following advertising, sales were made from the animals in question. A sale was made to Kristina of the melleri discovery forums, and she quickly emailed me upon receiving the animal stating that she thought that the animal that she received was WC and not farm raised(she brought up some valid points which made me think further about it such as the animal being much too large to be farmed, etc) I quickly emailed Josh Mease of the Chamaeleo research group and asked him if he knew if the melleri or anything else were WC. He then stated that Yes they were, etc(once again for legal reasons I cannot get into specifics at this time, but I assure you up until that point I had no knowledge of anything on that shipment being WC). I emailed Kristina back promptly agreed that she was right, and that Josh confirmed they were WC and that I would refund her money and she could keep the animal as I knew it was in good hands. Other claims were made about the health of that animal, but I assure you the animal was in good shape and was eating/drinking properly prior to shipping out and there were no noticeable illnesses prior to shipping. From there anyone else who received animals that came in under WC permits that may not have been farmed were emailed by myself stating the situation and I offered them a refund/replacement or Credit on a future order aswell as formely appologized to them. The next morning I left town, and the advertisements for those animals listed on kingsnake were not re listed, and sales were ceased on those animals. I did not have time to fully redo the website(and at that point allot of work was required to do so) and since the customers had been informed of the situation I left without thinking that there was an issue. The day after I left The post from Chamresearch came up and I did not find out about it until mid week. I had no Internet access, nor did I know exactly what he said on his website or any other gossip that occurred until I came back.
The facts are, that animals were misrepresented unknowingly and that every effort to rectify the situation has been made, secondly rumors of my end of the shipment being stolen are completely false, and I have all records of my end of the shipment being paid in full before it left Tanzania as well as the entire freight amount and any other charge that occurred during the importation process(anyone who would like to see this proof, feel free to contact me, I will be scanning copies for everyone to see). Also Rumors of Josh not receiving his full end of the shipment are false as well and I have a copy of the original invoice and DOA report that will reflect the actual animals sent to him and I assure you that every animal he was supposed to recieve was shipped aside from any DOA animals or animals that he and I traded(some of my personal animals were also sent to him to show good faith, for no charge as well).This mess happened as a result of lack of communication between myself, Josh Mease and the supplier and while I take the blame for the misrepresentation and advertising the animals before we knew their exact background, I refuse to say that this misrepresentation was done knowingly. I once again apologize for the inconvenience, if you have received something from this shipment and you are reading this please contact
[email protected] for your refund/replacement options(everyone who placed there order on the Internet has been taken care of, but some local sales were made).All of the animals remaining will Be sold as WC to avoid any argument(even though there is a very good possibility that many of these animals are indeed farm raised in Tanzania) and sold at WC prices. I am pretty offended that after the history between Josh Mease and I, that he would so quickly post these accusations, and allegations towards me especially since I paid the entire amount of the shipment and freight/import charges without asking for any payment from him. That issue will be addressed outside of the forums and hopefully we can get the issue resolved in order to bring in future F1 shipments into the United States. Of course in the future I will make absolutely certain that I have what I have prior to advertising.
One other issue that I would like to address is too Rob at RK Reptiles. Why would you say that I will not defend myself? If you read further in this original thread you will see that I defended myself over two years ago when Justyn Miller brought up an issue. Also, the black and white throat monitors advertised by FYB Exotics(
www.fybexotics.com) are From Joe Beraducci at MBT animal farm and not from another shipment. I know this because I unpacked and imported them myself from that shipment(they too came in under WC permits but once again, you can send farmed, or CB animals under WC permits, but you cannot do the opposite) and I do believe that they were actually bred and born at his facility in Tanzania but I cannot confirm that quite yet. Another issue that i would like to address is the fact that Joshua Guerrero of FYB Exotics and I are partners. We are not business partners, but we share shipments from other countries, and sell together at shows for convenience. We do allot of business together, and are often seen with each other, but we have completely separate business names, finances, customers, liscences etc. He is not responsible for my deals and I am not responsible for his.
Back to the topic at hand, Josh Mease and I are trying to work things out responsibly and until things develop further, or more info can be submitted, this will be my last post here. This issue is very complex and should be settled in the court room rather than the BOI if it needs to go any further. If you are reading this as a potential customer to us, I can assure you that I do the best I can with my chameleons and try to represent them as accurately as possible. If you have read these comments and still have doubts, please contact me stating that you read the post on the BOI and I will give you 15 percent off your first order. From there you are more than welcome to post your findings about us on this forum.
Best Regards,
Nick mole
First Choice Reptiles
[email protected]
407-855-7323
www.firstchoicereptiles.com
