I met Richard back in the 90's and then worked with him at the first meeting to creat the Turtle Survival Alliance in 1999. The Forth Worth Zoo hosted a meeting of 200 turtle and tortoise exsperts from around the world to address the "Asian Turtle crises".Only 8 of us were from the private sector,the rest were from Zoos and members of other world wide big time Conservation groups. He was a private sector person like myself. I have to say although his heart was in the right place his personal plan was a mis/un-guided failure from the beginning. He inhaireted money, and lived in a Manhattan highrise.(were the Mt.Tortoises he got from me had a 9 story view of NY from a balcony.) He collected rare and common turtles from the Chinese areas of town that were going to be served up as food. He had more than 1200 turtles their before he was kicked out. He got money from others and went through his and theirs trying to build a reserve. Well the turtles were to much for him to keep they got sick, people lost intrest, he spent all his time and resources fighting city hall and it failed. That was the most depressing show about turtles I've ever seen and it reflected very badly on the herp community. I dont recomend anyone watching it,it was poorly produced and kreepy. Sorry for the harshness, but it is only a documentation of how a pure emotional concept of animal saviorism will fail. I dont know what he is doing now but I wish him well. Vic M

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