Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Jeff Corwin was just on the today show promoting his childrens book about exploring wildlife in your backyard. For some reason he decided to bring a few animals on the show that most children would never see in their backyard, an alligator snapping turtle, an alligator, and a burmese python.

Jeff also made sure to tell everyone about how unwanted Burmese pythons were being dumped into the everglades by pet owners and that there is now 100,000 of them there.

Of course none of this had anything to do with his book (or reality), so I wonder if was just an excuse to get on national tv to help spread more of the H$US propaganda.

Yes. He is one of that self-appointed select group of "only I can" crowd of Herpocrites! Wonder how/where he makes his money?
jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

Jeff Corwin sits on the Board of Directors of Defenders of Wildlife. They are the ones who wrote HR669 and are close allies with HSUS. He is not our friend!
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USARK

That explains a lot. I'm pretty much done with animal planet.

I met Jeff Corwin once and as I remember he was in his early teens or younger [before he became famous or infamous]. He was a pompous kid even. Just by watching his shows I can tell he is not intimately aquainted with dangerous wildlife and handles them in a clumsy unproffesional way. He is NOT what I call "THE REAL DEAL" as Nigel Marvin and Mark O'Shea are. Either of them are so much more knowledgeable and skillful than Corwin it would be like comparing a Black Mamba to a Copperhead in terms of danger to people. On one of his early shows in Belize I saw him jump on a Morelet's Crocodile only about 3' long and even then the jaws were taped [I saw this on Animal Planet not in real life and the tape was clearly visible if one looked closely. Not only is he our enemy but what I consider a wannabe. In my opinion he shouldn't be in the same room with Nigel or Mark in terms of real skill and knowledge.
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

He is, and always has been, a tool. Childish sense of humor, also. Nice to see his food show went down in flames, lol.

I always thought he was a phony and acted like an inexperenced fool on TV. At least now I know what others think. Something about him wasnt real. Who did he work under? Ross Allen just rolled over in his grave. This generation is getting screwed on animal hero's. What drives this type to be AR pushers? Shut up already Jeff! I'd like to see you bag an EDB on a hot summer day. Lets all write the AR Planit and request it. Another creep in the heep of "bleep". Vic

Maybe that's the one show of his I saw, the one where he catches the last on his list of every species of Crocodilian in the world. Something to that effect.
I thought it was bogus at the time and I asked myself, "Who is this guy?"
People like that are just narcissists. It's all about them. Everything else is just stage props. Reminds me of politicians.
jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

You know for well over 10 years now the farmers have referred to that channel as the "animal rights planet". I haven't watched anything on that channel for several years now myself.
I always knew Jeff Corwin was an idiot. My true confirmation of it was on one of his shows on Madagascar. He picks up some specimen of a Brookesia chameleon of which the exact species escapes me now. Anyway he pronounces their genus name wrong and then proceeds to tell everyone how THIS is the smallest species of chameleon in the world Brookesia minima.If you know anything about these chameleons you would first off know that, that very statement is very debatable as I think even back then they had broken the minima complex up into several species. I have done a lot of work with brookesia chameleons in the past mostly with ebenaui's and decaryi's but a few other species as well so while I am certainly no expert on them I do know my way around the genus of brookesia.
Anyway this brookesia he held in his hand probably could have gulped down a B. theili if it had wanted to and they are larger than minima's.
You would figure that someone who purports himself to be a professional like he does and is doing a TV show would at least do their homework a little better. That is far from the only mistake I have seen on his show it was just one of the more glaringly obvious ones and certainly entertaining to me.
I should consider getting out of playing guitar to earn extra income and going into television it is obviously much easier. In the music world if I made mistakes bad as this guy does I wouldn't just be fired I'd be booed off the stage as well.

Can't stand Jeff Corwin. Preppy little gweeb.
I think it was Brady Barr though that caught all the species of crocodilians. I don't like him either. I feel like he has single handedly destroyed the rep. of NG.
I heard him once say an adult Komodo could eat his bodyweight in one sitting.
So a 300lb lizard would be 600lbs???
I think he was thinking of a shrew or a pygmy mouse.
Once I saw him "jump" on a big Acutus.
Swearing it was 2000lbs. 2000lbs as big as any croc in modern times and he found one that big and caught it.
From where I was sitting it was between 600-800lbs.
Did like Steve Irwin. I know he was over the top but the guy could handle crocs and I respect that.D.C.

WHAT! You mean future herpers won't be following in Corwin's foot steps decades after his passing. Instead of Jasper ct. or Ajo rd. where we all found ourselfs after "reading a book" No,it will be a Hollywood stage prop.in Studio A. I'm so glad I lived when I have. The whole herp world was metamorphosising around me. Wagner, Lazlo, Applegate, Murphy, de Vosjoli, Barker and some here on this forum right now. We wont "die" out with these laws but we may go "underground". Who inspired you I ask, and why ? It wasnt jerks like Corwin of Hollywierd. I for one never missed Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins. Then I read the keeper and the kept and never was the same. Vic

Joseph Lazlo thanks for useing his name one of my true heros.Danny it was Brady and it was the phillipine croc.He cought a little baby.I hate the way he uses shark hooks to catch crocs with a drag line.Steve irwen was a hero as well.He had a true passion and shared it with the world.He used his money to build his zoo not himself.He knew crocs and did handle them well.He is an icon that will never be matched by anyone.He may of not been the BEST academic but he was very real.Corwien is a little prick
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Archie Bottoms

Yep, The Coke a cola cooler in the reptile house,(anyone have this picture) it was like the first man flight to orbit earth in space for herpetoculture. The sexing probe wasnt a bad idea eather. I was always within ear shot of him at any herp Conference if I wanted to learn anything. Salt of the earth pioneer of captive born herps. Vic

I was 12 years old. That guy took me under his wing, befriended me, and mentored me. After he left Houston, I would skip scool just to go see him in San Antonio. Didn't see him much after 1972.
He loved the animals. Wasn't about money or fame. The nicest guy in the business. And the smartest. Some of my best memories.
jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

Lazlo was one of the reasons I went to most of the early IHS conventions.

I honestly believe there is something different about the ones who were lucky enough to have known him. It's more than nostalgia.
jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

Joe Lazlo was NOT only one of my closest friends but was truly an inspiring and important person in my life until his death. Joe and I talked for hours on end about breeding herps and our theories on what would work in order to succeed with difficult species. Once as a personal favor I aquired a pair of rare [still are] Vipera bornmuelleri for him from an Israeli occupied area on Mt. Herman in the Sinai. I did this by getting Naftale Primor, a close friend and Colonel in the Israeli Army, to collect them for me to get for Joe. That's how much I loved Joe. He was my house guest many times. The last time he visited was when I presented a paper at a SSAR meeting in Tampa and he and John Visser from South Africa went home with me for a few days after the meeting was over. We did some Herping and talked herps while John showed us slides of his latest collecting trip to Namibia. This was in the early 80's and is one of my fondest memories of Joe. After all these years have past I still miss him and I always will. Mon he was a great man!!!
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Cool story Tom, but sad for you. I only new him from his talks and work. I hope someone has some pics of him and all the others that started this unbelievable culture we have.(Bill Love maybe) It changed my life bigtime, "back in the day". We can not let the AR's win at any cost."my cold dead hands"*C.H. Lets here more,its a hell of a story. Vic

When I was about 13 or 14, had a WC Rough Green Snake lay eggs. Asked Joe how to incubate them. He told me. Had 100% hatch. I was hooked. Knew I had the right stuff.
jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

....and then you past it on to someone else and so on. Its happened to all of us and we can not "ever let them brake the chain" *s.nicks......VM...........pic.......from a busted illegal shipment,DEAD TORTOISE WALKING, to defying destiny.It would have never happened without being inspired by my first Boa and the founding fathers of herps.

Does anyone remember the Purina (udder wash) Disinfectant? How about Pemco glass terrariums/tanks?
How about the original belly heat with the incandescent lights in the sub-base with a light dimmer rheostat?
jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

You guys that truly knew Joseph lazlo have passed his knowledge along and I have been lucky enough to here it from some of you and other people who knew him.I did talk to him on the phone in 1980 and did not know who he was at the time.Most of the ones left who know who he was can only remember him as who he was a true pioneer who led the way for all captive propagation today.There were others as well.Then there is Tom I have often wondered if Jesus had stayed with him once,LOL.The truth is that this way of life most of us took for granted 20 years ago is coming to an end. If we can not stop the train.Where I come from most people think you might be crazy for having snakes but they would never dream of telling you you can't have them.This country has taken some hard turns since then.For some reason freedom has taken the back seat to control.People no longer seem to want true freedom and prefer to give everything to the law to protect them.New laws as well as bills appear every day and the onslaught continues.How this happened I do not know.How could I as I do not want to limit any ones rights.We are a dying breed.I never missed wild kingdom as well .Now I just hope our grand kids will at least have the right to go herping and keep snakes one day,with out it being a white list of the only 5 species that society will deem appropriate to own,Left to jeff Corwin it will be like that no doubt.I really hate that guy.
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Archie Bottoms

I still have a few PEMCO tanks... wish they still made them today!

Peter
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Peter and Sara
Beouf River Reptiles

"Vos mon...thesse veepers, theese Bothrops! They breed like CHICKENS but den de die like flies!"

RIP Joe...Wherever you are I hope they have a really big cool room for all your veepers.
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Peter and Sara
Beouf River Reptiles

How cool is that!
jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer