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UPS just halted shipping snakes using Shipyourreptiles.com.....

Here is the email I received.......

Temporarily stop snake shipping

Hi there,
Due to some irresponsible shippers, UPS has directed our customers to temporarily stop shipping snakes with ShipYourReptiles.com.
We are working hard to reinstate safe snake shipping for our customers and the entire reptile community.
Other types of UPS-approved non-venomous reptiles — including geckos, lizards and turtles — may be shipped with ShipYourReptiles.com.
To make your shipments easy, we recommend you drop off your packages at a Staples or Office Depot shipping counter.
We will keep you updated on this matter.
Thanks for your patience and support,
-- Robyn and the ShipYourReptiles.com team
Robyn@ShipYourReptiles.com : www.ShipYourReptiles.com
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

I knew this was coming eventually, at least with FedEx you have to get certified,,,as opposed to any person doing things any which way on someone elses account.
Tom Stevens
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TomsSnakes.com
twitter.com/TomsSnakes

I hope they get this fixed soon cause Fed Ex is so expensive that it deters sales!
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

I talked to the owner at Shipyourreptiles and he said it was two people. One that shipped using dry ice and the second was a false water cobra that got national news in Florida. This will get resolved shortly as they just have to apply for the dry ice permit and the "slighly" venemous is something you just can't stop...

UPS does allow dry ice with certain companies like mouse shippers. So that is not to bad for someone to screw up and ship dry ice shine every reptile guy gets dry ice in their mouse shipment.

But the whole venomous thing is really a very gray area. Fed ex does not allow them either even if they are slightly venomous or rear fanged such as Hognoses. Yet everyone ships hognoses even though they are stictly forbidden by law. A lot of harmless snakes do have some type of venom and they fall under that catagory.
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www.Bluerosy.com

"A lot of harmless snakes do have some type of venom and they fall under that catagory." Yeah I recently heard Garter snakes are considered Venomous in Illinoise, I think.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

Yeah I recently heard Garter snakes are considered Venomous in Illinoise, I think.

yes they are. And there is a lot more.

So basically anyone can get into trouble or cause someone trouble by reporting them.
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www.Bluerosy.com

Well, I'm glad I got my most recent snake, the Thayeri mix, before this occurred. On the box it just says perishable, and on other UPS boxes of live reptiles I have received it has just said harmless reptile, not snake or anything else more specific.

When i talked to SYR they said you can still ship other reptiles. This was also relaid in a don't ask don't tell sort of manner. In other words be descreet. Make sure the person you are shipping to is not some newb who like to shout from the rooftops or call UPS complaining his snake did not arrive before 10 a.m.

Also most people still ship snakes via fed ex or UPS without any special contract or verification. It is all just policy. There is a difference between breaking a companies "policy" and breaking the law. Heck back in the day, before we had overnight carriers, we used to ship snakes on regular service which took 3-5 days. We had to learn to pack well back then. Most people in the hobby today don't pack their snakes tight> Even those with 20 years epericnce send snakes in deli cups half full or with a tiny papertowel. Drives me a little nuts when this happens from experiencd breeders.

Remember this whole fiasco is because snakes have a stigma in people minds.
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www.Bluerosy.com

Who else can remember when you had to go to the airport and find the Delta Cargo terminal, wait a half hour for some Emmett to go find the package, hoping it wasnt frozen or cooked?? Stuff would come in any which way! I still remember Kevin McCurley in the corner of the Delta terminal with his burlap sacks full of 500 ball pythons, LMAO. He took every one from one sack and put it in other sacks, keeping 4-5/500! They were $8ea! Probably less for him. He tried talking me into the "future of breeding ball pythons" but I stuck to my scarlet kings and coastal plains milks and showed him! ROFLMAO! But after 9/11 I really doubt they would either ship like that or let you accept them like that. Ahhh, the good ole days!

Who else can remember when you had to go to the airport and find the Delta Cargo terminal, wait a half hour for some Emmett to go find the package, hoping it wasnt frozen or cooked?? Stuff would come in any which way! I still remember Kevin McCurley in the corner of the Delta terminal with his burlap sacks full of 500 ball pythons, LMAO. He took every one from one sack and put it in other sacks, keeping 4-5/500! They were $8ea! Probably less for him. He tried talking me into the "future of breeding ball pythons" but I stuck to my scarlet kings and coastal plains milks and showed him! ROFLMAO! But after 9/11 I really doubt they would either ship like that or let you accept them like that. Ahhh, the good ole days!

Jeff,
That was not that long ago. That was like,,yesterday!

I meant more like 30-40 years ago, not 10yrs ago.
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www.Bluerosy.com

Rainer, that was 15 years ago, not yesterday. I posted that because alot of the newer guys have no idea. Before captive breeding it really was the wild wild west. Most of us that have been doing this for 15 years bust each others' balls pretty good around here. Never forget where we came from and who we are, perspective. And man o man do I make bad decisions sometimes, lol.

I guess I am getting so old that 10-15 years ago seems like yesterday. heck 20 years ago seems like yesterday.

That is what happens when you get older. Times flys by the older you get.

20 yeafrs ago i use to get te Ball pythons shipped in to. But for $6. each. they were the garbage snake of the snake world. Who would have guessed.

What i see as the real time things took off for herpetoculture was in the early 80's. That is when things really took off. Reptles shows and people were buying left and right. That was the time to breed and sell everything you had at a monthly herp meeting. We didn't need reptile shows.

I really wish we could go back to those days because we actually apprciated the snakes a whole lot more. All of them. Everything was new and cool. Splendida, black milks, celanops/striped & abberant cal kings/Mtn kings/Yuma kings, nitida, rainbow boas, Fords boas, chondros, sinaloan milks, ..awe!1 man it was a mix and a menagerie. It was fantastic. And the greatest thing of all most of these captive hacthed snakes came direct from their wildcaught parents.There was no hybrids. there were no tricolor albinos of anything. So we had the real thing. If you want to consider purity in that way. There was no time to selctively breed. We went out and collected the snakes and bred the wildcaught parents, then sold the babies. Just as simple as that. Some guys had all the luck going down to Baja and coming back with such cool stuff. I was stuck to the foothills and desrts on southern calf. Which isn't a bad place to be.

Ooh,I wish sometimes that god could just zap me back in time to re-live those days for just a little while. I miss the way things used to be. The way herpers used to treat each other. back then it was all about the snakes and not personalities. The snake was everyones focal point and just possesed us when in their presence.

Then came the ball python craze which sorta ruined everything.

I said this here before. i don't really care much for ball pythons. Just my own tastes, I guess. Not putting down the snake or anyone who likes them. I used to collect rocks to when i was a kid.
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www.Bluerosy.com

Rainer, dont get me started on Ball pythons. Geesh. But the rest, I'm right with you. Just finding mates for a "rare" snake like a Honduran milk or a Arizona Mt king was tough. We didnt understand what morphs were. Now we have to have morphs "to get something NEW"....but not really. I remember about 5-10 years ago I was trying to get people to get involved with other species. There are SOOOOOOO many species worldwide that dont even have common names that no one is dealing with. The Asian ratsnakes, water and garters now have their following, but with clamps coming down worldwide for imports I'm kinda surprised no one breeds more foriegn stuff. Snakes like Boiga and other tree snakes, all kinds of SA stuff is still available. Importers dont import them because there is no "demand". I know you dont want to hear it but I'll say it again.....anyone with a tiny bit of rack space, please dont reinvent the wheel!! Try something NEW! It doesnt have to be easy and it doesnt have to be profitable, though it might end up being both! Those African green snakes would be neat, or how about European colubrids?? I found some really neat GREEN colubrids in a river in Bosnia a few years ago, I doubt if there are any of them in the states, etc etc..

Before I elected to go with kingsnakes, I looked for some other particular species; mole snakes and diadems in particular. I just couldn't ever find decent sources for them...
There's so many neat snakes out there no one works with. Some of it's understandable; anything in the genus Regina or Farancia would probably be nearly impossible to feed for instance. But Texas Long-noses? Patchnose snakes? Mussuranas? Oxybelis? The list goes on and on.
I'd *really* like to try my hand at some of the invertebrate eating snakes later on--there are some damn neat ones and inverts are readily available after all.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

Thats what I have been doing in Uruguay for well over 20 years. And I agree,there are lots of different snakes out there but they tend to be disregarded, probably out of ignorance.
people don't want new stuff, they just like slightly different old stuff.
David

here stateside they're nearly impossible to find. I found some once but they were 800 a pop, so putting together a decent breeding group (2 males, 3 or 4 females) was cost prohibitive. Hell, I don't know if I've actually seen that many offered up for sale.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

Some are being bred in the States, both from my stock and previous imports
David

http://www.dougtaylorreptiles.com/
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www.Bluerosy.com

W00t! I can't afford those pieds/super pieds but next season there may be a normal pair in my future...
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

But you never see them for sale EVER!

Just picked up a sexed pair yesterday....lol

1st ones I've seen in my area in... well... forever. As soon as I saw them I knew they were going to be mine.

Hi Rainer,

I've been keeping bps since '79 and I've always loved them, but I tend to have a lot less respect for their market these days. But anyway, a great post my friend. I remember similar times on the northern east coast. It was a different day back then, and in many ways a better one. I wish I was out west with you fellas for some of that time.

Will

Yeah, I remember those days. I used to get shipments from Hong Kong and Singapore via PAA [remember them?] and they would call me from Hawaii and give me a time of arrival at LAX. I could take the 65 mile trip to the terminal and pick up my shipment without it sitting around.-----theOLDherper---'Pete'

Back in about 1970 I recieved a phone call from a local hospital about a snake bite. It seems that a yougster had caught a garter snake on the school grounds and had been bitten. Later that day his hand and forearm were swollen so they took him to the hospital. The doctor was refered to me and wanted information. I had never heard of anything like that and I told him that I thought it could be that the snake had recently eaten a toad and the child might have been highly alerject to the toad secretion, as some people are with bee stings. Little did I know!-----theOLDherper---'pete'

Sorry. Didn't mean to iterupt, should have been under a new heading.-----'pete'

..a buddy of mine was bitten by a pigmy and another time by a big e. garter...well...his reaction to the garter bite landed him in the hospital while the pigmy bite had a lesser effect on him.
When he told his mom "hey Mom, I just got bit by a pigmy, need to get to the hospital", his mom, who was in the house, replied, "wait 'till I finish my hair"
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!

crimsonking.piczo.com/

n/p
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

You can thank Dr. Fry for that! All hail the tabloid scientist!
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"Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!" Charlie Papazian

Wait, why the living hell was someone shipping a live herp with dry ice??
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

Wait, why the living hell was someone shipping a live herp with dry ice??

Who says it was a snake? It would be a dead snake if dry ice was in the container.

It is still UPS service. i ship other things besides live animals with UPS. Maybe it was mice. A returned dead snake. Could have been anything.
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www.Bluerosy.com

>>Wait, why the living hell was someone shipping a live herp with dry ice??
>>
>>Who says it was a snake? It would be a dead snake if dry ice was in the container.
>>
>>It is still UPS service. i ship other things besides live animals with UPS. Maybe it was mice. A returned dead snake. Could have been anything.

I think what he is getting at Rainer is the fact that they halted shipping live snakes and this dry ice infraction was one of your reasons why........
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

I think what he is getting at Rainer is the fact that they halted shipping live snakes and this dry ice infraction was one of your reasons why........

No. they used SYR account to ship dry ice. SYR does not have an account to ship dry ice. It has nothing to do with snakes. I can use SYR to ship guns if i want as it does not violate policy with UPS. Nobody says it has to be snakes that have to be shipped. only things you cannot ship. Dry ice is one and venemous snake is the other.

Also it was not one of my reasons. It was the reason UPS halted the contract with SYR because of these two violations.
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www.Bluerosy.com

I think the point that was trying to be made was why would SYR halt the shipping of only snakes due to dry ice? I think the false water cobra is what halted the shipping of snakes the dry ice was a separate issue all together.

>>I think the point that was trying to be made was why would SYR halt the shipping of only snakes due to dry ice? I think the false water cobra is what halted the shipping of snakes the dry ice was a separate issue all together.

DITTO.....LOL

I just typed my reply to Rainer than read this.....
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

I think the point that was trying to be made was why would SYR halt the shipping of only snakes due to dry ice? I think the false water cobra is what halted the shipping of snakes the dry ice was a separate issue all together.

because it was through SYR .

SYR terms or service states that we that use theie services cannot ship dry ice. The reason they halted the snakes was for both infractions. It has to do with lower and upper level managment at UPS. I am sure this will get worked out with some of the higher level folks at UPS that have half a brain.

I have called UPS while shipping reptiles and nobody and mean NOBODY thinks it is within their policy to ship reptiles. i spoke to superrvisors twice when shipmenst got delayed. Both of them said there is no such thing as a contract with any company that allows UPS to ship reptiles. Then i directed them to the SYR site. And they look right at it and still say the policy at UPS is no shipment of any reptiles.

So what is happening is that SYR has a contact with some upper level managment at UPS. SYR are the only ones who have this contact phone number. They are the only ones who can talk to this person or dept who knows there is a contract. Not even a superervsor knows how to find out if there is a contact and they will tell you under any circumstances , contrat or no contract UPS will tell it does not allow reptles, period! Basically the right hand does not know what the left is doing. So goes with this dry ice thing which is lower managment cuasing upper managment some problems.

Go ahead and call UPS yourself and tell them you will ship reptiles or have been shipping reptiles through SYR and see what they say. Ask for a supervosro or a super-supervisor. it is like talking to a broken machine.They will tell you there is no such thing, contract, or possiblity that UPS handles any live reptiles throug any company. It is strictly against their policy.

.

they are bone heads and that is why they ban snakes because of dry ice. get it yet?
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www.Bluerosy.com

>>I think what he is getting at Rainer is the fact that they halted shipping live snakes and this dry ice infraction was one of your reasons why........
>>
>>No. they used SYR account to ship dry ice. SYR does not have an account to ship dry ice. It has nothing to do with snakes. I can use SYR to ship guns if i want as it does not violate policy with UPS. Nobody says it has to be snakes that have to be shipped. only things you cannot ship. Dry ice is one and venemous snake is the other.
>>
>>Also it was not one of my reasons. It was the reason UPS halted the contract with SYR because of these two violations.
>>-----

Rainer I understand all that.......No new news to me.....
I guess the kicker that caused the halt on shipping snakes was the False Water Cobra???????

Dry ice is another issue.....It may even be a federal offense without the use of placards and other rules concerning dry ice.....This infraction had NOTHING to do with the halt on shipping snakes......

UPS will still ship all other reptiles through SYR.......The contract is not halted in its entirety. You just can't ship snakes through SYR and use UPS......LOL
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

Just to confirm Rainer's story about the venomous and dry ice. I put a call into SYR as well immediately after receiving the email as I had two shipments waiting to go out. They called me back and told me the exact same story that Rainer reported. They are working with UPS to get it resolved, and I was told that I would get a call back by Monday afternoon with an update. Hopefully they can get this fixed as they provide an excellent service for us.
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Joe

That just doesn't make sense....of course, I shouldn't expect it to, but still. Shipping dry ice has bupkiss to do with shipping snakes, so why stop shipping snakes because of dry ice??
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

That just doesn't make sense....of course, I shouldn't expect it to, but still. Shipping dry ice has bupkiss to do with shipping snakes, so why stop shipping snakes because of dry ice??

You syill don't get it? SYR never stopped anything. It was lower managment at UPS that stopped the through SYR. They see the violation and put a hold on it until it can be cleared with the higher up folks. They are the ones who have control over the contact with SYR. It is just procedure.

Of course it make no sense to stop snake shipemnst when dry ice has nothing to do with snakes. But there was the one snake incident at the same time. That is not how a large entity works. That is why explained how UPS supervisors do not even know they have a contact for snakes. It is just the system. The system does not think and make logical decisions. Now SYR has to be more stingent on training us people on what NOT to ship.

I did prison ministry for 10 years and have heard thousands of horror stoies and there is nothing anyone can do. Most of the time it is political. Ask anyone who got lost in the prison system. So many poor fellows get locked up for half their lives for minor stuff when real criminals get out. It makes no sense and that is HUMAN lives (not snakes0 we are talking about.
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www.Bluerosy.com

>>You syill don't get it? SYR never stopped anything. It was lower managment at UPS that stopped the through SYR. They see the violation and put a hold on it until it can be cleared with the higher up folks. They are the ones who have control over the contact with SYR. It is just procedure.

I know it's not SYRs fault; I'm just stating that UPS's procedure doesn't make a lick of sense.

>>
>>I did prison ministry for 10 years and have heard thousands of horror stoies and there is nothing anyone can do. Most of the time it is political. Ask anyone who got lost in the prison system. So many poor fellows get locked up for half their lives for minor stuff when real criminals get out. It makes no sense and that is HUMAN lives (not snakes0 we are talking about.

I work social services as my day job. I get to talk to a mixture of the horribly down on their luck and utter leeches daily...I know systems have cracks, sometimes horrible ones. Sucks.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

So I wonder how big of a spike Fed Ex saw today on accounts trying to get certified?

So I wonder how big of a spike Fed Ex saw today on accounts trying to get certified?

Actually there is another company that just got a contract with UPS to allow us to ship reptiles. So no need to go to SYR. But i am a loyal customer so you will have to find out who that is on your own. They basically are copying SYR idea and got a similar contract. they sell the shipping supplies and do everything just like SYR. Evidently this is UPS not knowing what the left and right hand is doing by creating opposing competition.
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www.Bluerosy.com

Well SYR has done a good job of keeping them out of the marketplace because no where today have I heard them mentioned as an alternative.

BTW when did you switch to SYR? Last thing I got from you (Besides Daytona) was through Fed Ex.

BTW when did you switch to SYR? Last thing I got from you (Besides Daytona) was through Fed Ex.

I don't know when i started with them. but they have not been around long, so maybe last year. I must have started using them shortly after they started the services.

I gotta say it has been a great experince using them. they are always answering the phone and when i want to talk to the owner he calls me back and spends time talking with me. They are very courteous and professional and really care about their customers! If there is a problem with a shipment they will step in and get the representative of UPS to personally assist any misrouted snake delivery.

It is best to call them and let them handle any late deliveries and NOT UPS. Things will get done much quicker and then UPS will get that package to it proper destination real quick.

Calling UPS directly and telling them there is a live snake in the box will not get you any assitance and only resistance. Only Call SYR if UPS screws up.

It has only happened to me twice and when SYR got invovled with the correct person at UPS they conatct the driver and they will drop everything immediatly and drive across town to get that snake to it rightful destination.

I will also add when this happened the first time and i talked to SYR i was pretty pissed off because i got off the phone with UPS. They handled me and the situation very well. They indertsood that the snake was vakluable and that temperature could effect it health. They really went in above and beyond to help find the package and get things fixed fast.
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www.Bluerosy.com

>>
>>I will also add when this happened the first time and i talked to SYR i was pretty pissed off because i got off the phone with UPS. They handled me and the situation very well.
>>-----
>>www.Bluerosy.com

Ok i can NOT resist. After handling you for a few months, this might be Robyn and Chad's Biggest selling point of their company!

"If we can handle Rainer, we can handle ANYONE!"

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Cindy Steinle
PHFaust
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