Just a note. As far as I know no shipper will guarantee live delivery. DHL, Fed Ex, UPS, Delta... only guarantee that the package will get there at the scheduled time. If you read all the fine print on contracts they only pay you the insured value if the package is lost, and that means permanently. If they find it in a few weeks they will forward it and have probably already refunded your shipment cost. Not much good if your animal is delicate...
As for opening a package, any courrier that uses national airways (thats most of them!) to transport has the right to inspect suspicious packages. What makes it suspicious is pretty much up to them. 9/11 pretty much sealed our loss of privacy. Many of them have the right to inspect packages written in the fine print.
Maybe someone would care to start a national reptile courrier service?
