Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Most of the regular users of this forum know that Daryl and I have been working on together on a few projects - namely Louisiana Pinesnakes. Well, I got a notice today from him of bad news.

When he got homelast night around 7:30pm, he noticed the snake building door was partially open. Apparently someone broke into the building (breaking the lock off) and vandalized it. None of my tools were taken, but all of his mice and rats - except for one colony of mice - were turned loose. Nearly every snake container was open and laying on the floor.

He has lost almost all of his non-Louisiana pinesnakes snakes (and a couple of mine). As faras Louisiana pinesnakes go, he lost ALL of his and MANY of mine. Some lost are gravid females, too. It could have been worse - not ALL of them are lost to us. Still, it hurts more than I can describe to lose so much of a colony with such high potentials. (I'm talking about production potentials from a candidate species.)

I knowof ONE other person that this type of thing has happened to. Has this happened to anyone else in the last year or so? I don't think may, if any, snakes were actually stolen - they were just set free IN the room with the door to the outside open.

The release of exotics bothers be as much as the lost of these rare bloodlines - most of which can NOT be replaced!
KJ
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Help to protect our rights

I have never had this happen to us here or have heard of it occuring to others in such a way before this terribly malicious attack on your collection. We keep our collection in one of the rooms of our house (only 100 adult colubrids are contained) as I do not trust many as it is. House is alarmed and monitored as well as maintained with two very noisey dogs (one only hoping for some stranger to wonder to close to one of his bones).

Best regards guys as this I'm sure would be a tough one for any to personally have to deal with ...

I don't know, maybe PETA wackos? It sounds like their work??
Don't want to sound alarmist but some who post here threw down the gauntlet a few days ago.

Mike B

Very sorry to hear about that KJ. Thats enough to make you wish extremely bad things to happen to someone!
I hope your able to find more of the snakes. Randy W.

My deepest sympathy goes out to you guys! Hope your able to find a few more of the ones set loose! Would sure love to see the person/s responsible apprehended in some way. Makes me boil mad thinking of that. Here where I'm at, I wouldn't ever think of something like that happening. Think I'll be a bit more careful with my collection. Take care.
Russell Keys
Keys Reptiles

Geez KJ,

That hurts as much as my deal two years ago did. If you will post a list of the snakes you guys lost so we can all be on guard and see if any of them surface. You know it took Clark over two years to find out who raided his collection.

This is one of the reasons very few people are allowed into our place as you know.

Again Sorry to hear about this stuff let me know if I can help.

John Cherry
Cherryville Farms

KJ,

Thats insane. Sounds like animal liberation type of activity. How tragic that ANY of these snakes should be released into a non-native area, let alone the Ruthveni, who are rare as hens teeth. Sorry to hear this.

Sincerely,

Fred Albury

KJ,

I am both deeply saddened and angered to hear of this. Everyone here knows the amount of work and time you have placed into the acquisition, rearing and ultimately breeding of your colonies.
As John mentioned, once you have an accurate inventory of what is missing, please post it on the forum, so the rest of us may be on the watch for any unusual dealings.
Have Daryl try to remember anyone and everyone who has knowledge of the collection and the layout of the building. While it may be difficult, to believe someone known to him may have been involved, a situation such as this just recently occurred with Rick Sladick’s collection.
Hopefully, your Daryl’s local law enforcement official will be as understanding and vigilant.
It may be possible that the culprit, or culprits, released the rodents, to make it look as though they released the snakes as well. Were any of the snakes still lurking about within the confines of his building?
I wish you the best of luck in the recovery of your animals and apprehension of whoever is responsible, and know that you will be in my thoughts and prayers.

Jeff Snodgres

>>Most of the regular users of this forum know that Daryl and I have been working on together on a few projects - namely Louisiana Pinesnakes. Well, I got a notice today from him of bad news.
>>
>>When he got homelast night around 7:30pm, he noticed the snake building door was partially open. Apparently someone broke into the building (breaking the lock off) and vandalized it. None of my tools were taken, but all of his mice and rats - except for one colony of mice - were turned loose. Nearly every snake container was open and laying on the floor.
>>
>>He has lost almost all of his non-Louisiana pinesnakes snakes (and a couple of mine). As faras Louisiana pinesnakes go, he lost ALL of his and MANY of mine. Some lost are gravid females, too. It could have been worse - not ALL of them are lost to us. Still, it hurts more than I can describe to lose so much of a colony with such high potentials. (I'm talking about production potentials from a candidate species.)
>>
>>I knowof ONE other person that this type of thing has happened to. Has this happened to anyone else in the last year or so? I don't think may, if any, snakes were actually stolen - they were just set free IN the room with the door to the outside open.
>>
>>The release of exotics bothers be as much as the lost of these rare bloodlines - most of which can NOT be replaced!
>>KJ

Wow, this hasn't happened to me... yet. We've had our fair share of prowlers, scared some off a couple nights ago, and then the next night, someone egged our house and cars. Probably angry that I scared them off. Specifically aimed for my $#&$%&%) truck, too. I think they see the lights from the reptile room through the windows.

After the first prowling, I broke down and got my first security system. To top that off, I also picked up some nice ear-piercing sirens from Fred Meyer (they say hearing damage will result if in the room too long with one going off) just in case. After the egging, we now have security cameras hooked up to our computer system.

Does your buddy have a security system? If not, its time to invest in one. This goes for anyone else with a collection they don't want to lose, too.

-cat
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My collection and herp photography

www.lowergroundreptiles.net

I agree with you guys on the security system, I put one in three years ago and after the melt down of two years ago we also now havea temp alert hooked into the security system. So I feel a lot better about this kind of stuff, as it happens on a regular basis. There was a group of albino retics stolen several weeks ago in florida.

John Cherry
Cherryville Farms

Cherryville Farms - Reptiles

.

or made it to look like it was...kids do the same thing,they dont take and run they need to cause destruction and more grief for the owner,got any bad neighbor kids who knew of your snake building,needed drug money probably

Well, not much to say. Personally I think it was just kids with nothing better to do. I have had nightmares over various situations in which animals are lost, ie. fire, broken air conditions, etc. Never did I imagine this one though.

I won't list all of the Ruthveni, but there were several. We will re-build the colony and go on, nothing to do but that.

In regards to my non Ruthveni snakes, here is the list

1.1 yellow thayeri (my adults, possibly gravid)
1.1 thayeri (03 from mine last year)
1.0 trans pecos rat (one I caught last year with Hollister, my daughters pet)
1.1 bulls from Cherryville Farms (03's amel and het amel)
2.1 50/50 bulls (hypo x red)
1.1 adult Kankakee bulls possibly gravid)
0.1 LTC adult Bull (adult probably gravid)

Anyway, there it is, talk to you later.

dc

>>2.1 50/50 bulls (hypo x red)

Albino not hypo..... and the New Mexico milks and albino white-sided bullsnake are still missin, too. right?

KJ
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Help to protect our rights

able to find some more of the escaped animals. I hope they are able to catch those responsible.

Gregg F.

>>Most of the regular users of this forum know that Daryl and I have been working on together on a few projects - namely Louisiana Pinesnakes. Well, I got a notice today from him of bad news.
>>
>>When he got homelast night around 7:30pm, he noticed the snake building door was partially open. Apparently someone broke into the building (breaking the lock off) and vandalized it. None of my tools were taken, but all of his mice and rats - except for one colony of mice - were turned loose. Nearly every snake container was open and laying on the floor.
>>
>>He has lost almost all of his non-Louisiana pinesnakes snakes (and a couple of mine). As faras Louisiana pinesnakes go, he lost ALL of his and MANY of mine. Some lost are gravid females, too. It could have been worse - not ALL of them are lost to us. Still, it hurts more than I can describe to lose so much of a colony with such high potentials. (I'm talking about production potentials from a candidate species.)
>>
>>I knowof ONE other person that this type of thing has happened to. Has this happened to anyone else in the last year or so? I don't think may, if any, snakes were actually stolen - they were just set free IN the room with the door to the outside open.
>>
>>The release of exotics bothers be as much as the lost of these rare bloodlines - most of which can NOT be replaced!
>>KJ
>>-----
>> Help to protect our rights
-----
Gregg F.

www.greggsrb.com

pretty bad now a-days when you cant trust to bring someone to your house to sell or show off your snakes...he should track all the ones who have been to his house and knew of the collection and see if they try re-sell what he had....cant even trust the ones who say there your friends anymore in this business...huh arnold M...