Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It's amazing how wrong they can be and get away with it.
Where do they find these numb-sculls that write this stuff...HSUS Academy of Literary License?

From the latest Herp Digest...

"4) Reptile Rustlers Busted At Border -Endangered Species Among 1,000+ Hidden In Their Van
May 03, 2010/The Canadian Press
ST. CATHARINES, Ont.
A Niagara-on-the-Lake nab has admitted to illegally loading up his van with more than 1,000 reptiles and trying to sneak them across the Canada-U.S. border.

Andrew Fruck, 32, pleaded guilty in a St. Catharines, Ont., court Friday to trying to smuggle more than 1,000 tortoises, turtles, boa constrictors and pythons.

Canadian border guards at the Queenston-Lewiston bridge found a slew of reptiles hidden behind panels of the vehicle during a search on Sept. 15, 2009.

Among the critter contraband were seven types of endangered species: 15 red-footed tortoises, three leopard tortoises, two elongated tortoises, 14 African-spurred tortoises, three macklot pythons, two forsten tortoises and six rainbow boa constrictors.

Also in the shipment were 203 southern painted turtles, 1,220 red-eared slider turtles, three pond turtles and four king snakes — which are not endangered.

Fruck did not have proper documentation to import them into Canada.

Federal prosecutor Darren Anger said Fruck was attempting to cross the border with his wife, Tricia, and their two children when guards noticed a few loose screws in the van’s back panels. A guard removed one of them and found a cotton bag stuffed with several turtles, he said.

Fruck pleaded guilty to seven counts of unlawfully importing an endangered animal into the country and four counts of unlawfully importing an animal into the country without proper permits.

He also pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement to a customs officer and breaching a probation order banning the possession of animals.

Fruck’s wife, Tricia, 30, pleaded guilty to breaching a probation order relating to a charge in St. Catharines on Oct. 16, 2009.

Anger said last fall a mix of live and dead animals, including tree frog and gecko carcasses, was found in the couple’s home.

Thirty bags of dead rodents were found in an upstairs fridge.

An online resume says Fruck ran a company called Rodent Kings from 2001 to 2009 through which he sold small animals.

Both Andrew and Tricia have both been previously convicted of cruelty to animals when they were living in Napanee, Ont., Anger told the court.

The animals were seized at the border and transferred to other holding facilities. The 1,200 turtles were returned to their rightful home in Louisiana.

Both Andrew and Tricia Fruck will be sentenced on July 16."

That's a load of you know what...ey!

jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

"Thirty bags of dead rodents were found in an upstairs fridge."

"An online resume says Fruck ran a company called Rodent Kings from 2001 to 2009 through which he sold small animals."

I love when these news articles make comments about "dead animals" being found like that, packed into a freezer, and "conveniently" not mention that people buy these frozen rodents for reptile food.

No, clearly, this man was just killing rodents and stockpiling them in the freezer for other reasons, right ?

Nothing but Trial Lawyer strategy. Trying to paint the opposing litigant in as shameful a light as possible for the Jury; with all that hyperbole, innuendo, and mischaracterization; for the worst connotation, with no relationship to the truth.
That is not news. The man is not so subtly being tried in the Press.
jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

Well, in this case, the characterization of these two might not be too far off. Please read some of the posts on the FC Canadian Board of Inquiry re. Rodent Kings.

I was referring to:

"Among the critter contraband were seven types of endangered species: 15 red-footed tortoises, three leopard tortoises, two elongated tortoises, 14 African-spurred tortoises, three macklot pythons, two forsten tortoises and six rainbow boa constrictors."

I'm not so sure we have seven types of ENDANGERED species here? Very inflammatory and misleading statement. They may need to have been captive born and required a permit between borders, but the suggestion is that they are critically endangered and were taken from the wild. I'm pretty sure they were captive born and they were not taken from the wild.

"Thirty bags of dead rodents were found in an upstairs fridge."

So what? Just snake food, After all he is reported to be in the feeder business. Sounds so sinister. That's what I'm talking about.

"Both Andrew and Tricia have both been previously convicted of cruelty to animals when they were living in Napanee, Ont., Anger told the court."

An unnecessarily titillating hint at evil doing that is irrelevant and prejudicial. I bet the HSUS guys have set a pretty high bar there in Canada. Nothing about the possibility that the rodent operation may have qualified for that judgment.

This article looks as if it were written straight from the HSUS Play Book.

I'm not saying these are good people, I'm just saying the press is doing a disservice to their readers with all this sensationalism.

jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer