Reptile & Amphibian Forums

a while back someone posted a link on shipping critters thru U.P.S.,i cannot find it now.if someone could help,i would really appreciate it. thanks!, jeff

they do look the other way when some of their "lizard" customers are also shipping snakes.

But FedEx will accept reptile accounts under certain conditions. There is an excellent thread on how to get started, but it is posted on another forum and we are not allowed to post the link here. So email me if you want to read it.

that posting the helpful thread is allowed now, so I will give it a try and see. There are 2 very helpful FedEx threads here:

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75349

and

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33533

Hope it helps!

has anybody ever tried to mail a box(empty) that says theres a snake in it to see what happens?
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jake

my addiction:
2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
1 amelenistic corn snake (zyklon)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)

Fed Ex was willing to give shippers of snakes a chance, but we have to "play" by their rules. We show Fed Ex that we can safely and responsibly ship snakes, and hopefully they won't change their minds. Perhaps the other door to door carriers will consider it in the future as well. (although I would most likely stick w/ Fed Ex anyway)

"has anybody ever tried to mail a box(empty) that says theres a snake in it to see what happens?"

I can't even imagine why someone would do such a thing, outside of shipping test packages to Fed Ex for approval. That would just be asking for trouble. It's usually the other way around...people ship snakes without labeleing the box properly. (which can violate the Lacey Act) It's one thing to break a company's rules...but another to break the law.
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Traci

for a while! People send snakes without labeling them all the time, and you could probably even label it (empty box or not) and get away with at times, when they don't notice. But when they have randomly opened boxes (or for some reason of being suspicious - they do have the right to check) and find something they don't allow, you wouldn't be happy with the results. I have read threads of UPS and DHL (can't remember if FedEx was also discussed) opening boxes in their hub many states away from the shipper and receiver. When they found snakes in the box, they demanded that the shipper come and get them. Usually the shipper found some local zoo, shop, or rescue to come and take it as a donation. Of course, they could get the government agencies involved too, but I haven't heard of them doing that. But they might. I sure would not want to take those risks, even if you can USUALLY get away with it.

Is it any diferent than shipping lizards? I dont see why it would be. I do know UPS will ship lizards. I just last year recieved 13 Aligator Lizards via UPS They picked them up at 5pm and had them at my dore at 10am the next morning. Very nice helpfull people on there 1800 line. Helped us through the whole process including helping with packing and labling.
My Research and Collection "New server"

Jason,
No matter what you think, no matter what I think, the world views snakes differently than lizards. The facts are that you can ship lizards by both UPS and USPS. It is against the rules to ship snakes. Sure, people get away with it but everyone that does get caught is another stroke against the rest of us. Many places have looked at banning Boids larger than 6' and Monitors. Why? Because we, the Herp Community, fail to police ourselves and irresponsible owners try to get away with it. Whether they make sense in their rule making or not isn't the issue. The rules are there and we should abide by them. Just my $.02.

Pat G-C

And yes, UPS (AND the post office) will accept lizards and frogs, but not snakes. Probably because their employees might freak if one gets loose in the warehouse. I have known businesses that had UPS herp contracts that forbid snakes, but the local UPS people knew that they were shipping snakes and just "looked the other way". My feeling is that it is done this way to cover themselves if one ever gets loose and causes a problem. Management can tell employees ( and the court if sued) "Hey, we said NO SNAKES and they shipped them anyway - not our fault!". But regardless of why, those are their rules. You can always decide to disregard them - stupid, illogical, or not. You just have to be prepared for the consequences if you are caught. But it seems not worthwhile when there is a legal, approved way to ship snakes (back to the whole FedEx thread).

Actually, I am glad that FedEx makes shippers jump through some hoops. Maybe if they can weed out people who are not willing to ship properly, then they won't have loose snakes incidents, and won't decide to ban us all as being more trouble than we are worth.

I agree compleatly, There is no reason to break any rules for any reason. I would be interested to know exactly why the No Snake rule was put in place by these 2 postage carieers. I have to run by the post ofice in the next couple day so maybe they can answer that question
My Research and Collection "New server"