• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Terry Lilley - Tried selling me my own animal

C

Corey Sawyer

Membre Aîné
Joined
Feb 8, 2002
Messages
237
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
USA
I inquired with Mr Lilley about a certain snake, after being told he was using our pictures.

What do you know, he sent me a picture my partner took, with the background cut out! The snake in the picture has been in our hands ever since it was purchase from a snake collector in china.

Terry Lilley never had permission from us to use the picture nor did he to broker our animal.

It really doesnt matter how many reptiles you have sold, Terry. But how many of those have you accually delivered????

I have no problem with brokers (majority of the mammals I advertise are being brokered from a zoo in Denmark), but I do have a problem with brokers that rip people off.

I will be posting the picture he sent, plus the orginal later today or tomorrow, when time allows.
 
After reading the other post on this guy and what Corey just wrote, I dont feel bad at all for what supposedly happened with his ball. Im glad to see this coming out as I had never heard of this ......hmmmmm..........umm....WHATEVER YOU WANNA CALL HIM..... He will now be known as a thief in my book. Thanks for the info Corey and also Evan.

Good lookin out guys
 
Terry Lilley

It's actually kinda funny to hear that someone tried to sell you your animal. I don't mean that in a heartless way either, but if the guy didn't have permission to use your images then you should have a case for copyright infringement.

An image doesn't have to have a copyright on it to be covered by copyright. There are cases where huge amounts of money are being awarded for copyright infringement.

Scott Collien
 
Another great example that I put in the other thread, my friend Bob and I are at a show with the first ever imported specimens of a new water monitor locality/subspecies that he purchased from Duncan in Indonesia. I went with Bob to the airport, picked up the animals, unpacked them in the hotel room and sold them at shows. This whole time, Terry is posting a pic of one of the animals that we have, taken in Indonesia and offering the animals that we have in our possesion, for sale and representing himself as the first person to ever offer the species for sale. He is a liar. Plain and simple. Evan Stahl
 
Here is the picture Lilley sent my partner and I.

Just a little to add, Lilley first tried to sell the snake to my partner about 4 months before he tried to sell it to me. While some people were given permission to use the picture, Lilley was not one of them.
 

Attachments

  • hot.jpg
    hot.jpg
    24.9 KB · Views: 3,729
Now here is a copy of the original (well the original was too big to post on the board, so I resized it).

Lilley is good at marketing himself, but he is not a good dealer.

Lilley,
I guess you produced this snake too huh? I have hatched over 75,000 animals too (mostly MEALWORMS!). Have fun talking your way out of this.


Corey
 

Attachments

  • ermia_mangshanensis_08.jpg
    ermia_mangshanensis_08.jpg
    51.1 KB · Views: 3,078
photos and copyright laws

Being a former photographer of weddings and portraits I can tell you this. Keep all originals and negatives of your photos. I still have negatives and proofs from weddings I did back in "84".
If possible keep the memory cards and or save all photos to a CD. If you have the originals untouched up or uncropped you can definetly prove those photos are yours. In my opinion it is very clear that he took your images and just took out the background. Anyone can see that.
You definetly do have a case against this person for copyright and it wouldnt surprise me at all if you can get him on fraud for advertising animals that are not his etc. Seek a lawyer. Im sure you have a good case against this guy and can get him for more than just the pictures.
 
Hello,

Wow it looks like he didn't even do that, i think the cut out was stolen from another site that had permission to use the picture!

Amazing how some people can claim they are "breeders, have 25 years experience, bred more than 75,000 mealworms"...:dunce:

Looks like he is right about one thing on one of his posts,

"The internet is FULL of want-a-be reptile breeders and dealers." :rolleyes:

Seems like this Lilley character is one of them! :laugh:

Whether its 3rd party hearsay or not, after chatting to many old timers about him i've only heard one common thing about him from their dealings "beware". The same concensus from 95% of the people out there gives me only 1 word to describe such a character..."notorious".

I would be a rich man if i could sell everybody their own snake, then again next year.....kinda like renting it from me! :idea:
cheers

Konrad van der Vaart
 
This is fun!! From Terry Lilley

I have over 14,000 reptile photos that go out to over 30 countries including every state in the USA! O well I have sent the wrong photo out many times before!! I am a herpetologist not a computer nut. I even sent a photo of a naked lady to my best zoo client one time by mistake!! I told the curator it was a Fiji Island Iguana!! O well we all make mistakes but only on this forum do people waist their time taking about it! Have fun, I do even though I make mistakes. There are more important things to deal with.
Sincerely,
Terry (make a mistake) Lilley
Central Coast Reptile Research Center
 
Trying to sell the animals that you don't own is a picture mistake. Another lie and still no real answer. Come on Terry can't you do any better? Evan Stahl
 
14,000 reptile photos

quote:
______________________________________________
I have over 14,000 reptile photos that go out to over 30 countries including every state in the USA!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Including photos you obviously have NO RIGHT whatsoever to distribute and then claim are your animals!



Scott Collien
 
Mr. Lilley,

If you have such an extensive array of animals from which to choose, which (you say) are rightfully yours, why would you even have the picture of that snake to which you had no rights whatsoever? I mean, why was it on your computer in the first place, if you had not harvested it from another site? If you did harvest it from another site, why?!?!?

What you have said simply does not make sense to me. You may see this as nothing more than fun and games, but I assure you that hundreds, if not thousands, of people will read this thread over the years, and they WILL draw conclusions based on what they will have read.

Given the lame excuse you have submitted thus far, are you sure you want the types of conclusions to be drawn that such excuses will bring? I know I wouldn't.

If you stole the picture . . .fess up to it. If you tried to sell animals that were not yours to sell . . .tell us all. Chance are much better for a slap on the wrist and then a gradual forgetfulness from the reptile community for those who are up front about their short-comings. However, if you try to slime your way out of a rather obvious noose, you'll only make everyone think the worse of you!
 
DRAMA....................

Boy...the snake business really SUCKS..on BOTH sides of the equation.


----------------->Returns it to hobyy status

Fred
aztec reptiles
 
After all the new threads and posts Terry Lilley still has not sent one word in the direction of any one of the many many accusations that I have leveled against him. I hope that some of you that doubted his duplicity will read his replies and realize that he is avoiding the subjects and refusing to answer because he is wrong. This is a bad guy. Plain and simple. Evan Stahl
 
Ok, this is enough for me. I rarely post anything on here, but I do love to read it every night after I get home from work. But I have to butt in now. I met Mr. Lilly in 1985 at a symposium in Davis, CA. He came off as a real big deal. I was not impressed. And as you have noted on this thread, most old timers (like me) will tell you to steer clear of Mr. Lilly. He has been busted several times, has put up for sale animals that are impossible to get unless some poaching is involved, and has on a regular basis defrauded many people. I have known of him for over a dozen years. He is not new to this game. And he is not the breeder that he would like people to believe he is. The word poacher is much more like it, but hey, I never said that. I do know this for sure, Terry is a surfer dude, and paints houses for a living (at least he did in the 80s and 90s) He does not sell enough animals to quit his day job. We old guys have known about Terry for years. Sorry you younger guys still have to put up with him. Just beware, and if it was me, I would just ignore him. That's what I'm gonna do, just like I have for years. Thanks, Ken
 
the snake business really SUCKS

Quote:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Boy...the snake business really SUCKS..on BOTH sides of the equation.


----------------->Returns it to hobyy status

Fred
aztec reptiles
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------



It doesn't suck, certain ripoff scammers are what suck! Thanks to this site we can become aware of who does suck!

I don't know why Terry Lilley keeps posting or trying to add new posts when he has no credibility. Many questions remain unanswered, but then again, who wants answers from Lilly anyway? We all know he is bad news!

Scott Collien
 
It doesn't suck, certain ripoff scammers are what suck!
Click to expand...
Thank you Scott, I dont think it sucks either.

Its just these people like Terry here that cause disruptions every once in a while.

When it comes to people like Mr. Lilley that ruin it for the rest of us. My solution is to inform as many people as possible that Mr. Lilley is quite the________(you can fill in the blank). And I know I will never let him see a dime of my money or anyone elses money I know for that matter.

It would not even matter if these threads contained any proof at all of the way Terry conducts things, my veiws are based on other things on top of the acusations, such as HIS ATTITUDE.

Hey Mr. Lilley, I will tell everyone I know about your SHADY ethics and also how I think of you to many others, If you would like my address for you BS LAWSUIT, just let me know and I will send it to you. I would advise you to inquire about the laws you use to threaten others on this board. You cant decide what things are illegal and what ones are not.
One question though Terry, is it even slander if its true?

Good luck on your zoo, and also your lawsuit.

Due to the new warning system this reply was heavily edited. But im sure my thoughts are clear.
 
Uh....shouldn't that signature read "Terry (YOU make a mistake IF YOU BUY FROM ME) Lilley?

Most people would get FIRED if they sent a nudie pic to a client in place of the pic that was supposed to be sent by someone that paid attention while he worked because he CARED about the product of his labor...........

Thanks for the heads up Corey...this isn't the first I've heard of this place .....doubt it will be the last.

Tom Chambers
 
Okay...
so you deny trying to sell Corey his own animal.
But you admit to trying to sell him an animal you have never even seen in person.

I can understand selling animals for your friends...
But to sell an animal from someone on the otherside of the world?
An animal you have not seen?

I do not know about that
 
In my opinion, Terry Lilley just cannot be believed. In one thread, he said that he had sold over 300,000 reptiles since 1979. In another, he said that he had legally sold and shipped over 200,000 reptiles in the same time frame.

That left us with the following questions to account for the apparent discrepancies: Were the other 100,000 illegally shipped? Were the other 100,000 sold to walk-in customers? Did Mr. Lilley just forget that he had made those 100,000 sales when he posted the second thread?

However, in a completely separate post, Mr. Lilley also informs us all that he has bred and sold more than 75,000 animals since 1981. That raises the folowing questions: Are you saying that you bred 75,000 animals and brokered the rest (125,000 or 225,000 depending on which figure you accept)? Or, are you saying that you sold 125,000 (or 225,000) animals in the first two years of your business, and then sales dropped off dramatically over the last 22 years?

Quite frankly, Mr. Lilley, it appears to me that you are pulling numbers out of your ears. That's fine if you are trying to make yourself feel better about your situation, but the problem with making up numbers in several instances, is that it becomes increasingly difficult to recall which lie has been told. I would say that your brain's lie retention system (which helps liars keep their stories straight), is just about to go into overload status!

By the way, I would be happy to provide you with whatever pertinent information your pretend lawyer needs for your pretend lawsuit. I promise you that there is no way you can win a settlement against me for slander, Sir!
 
Back
Top