Anything you are curious about? Want to know all the sordid details and smoky back room dealings of the exotic animal trade? Ask away. I used to manage all exotics including venomous reptiles and primates.
I want to know all the sordid details and smoky back room dealings of the exotic animal trade. Were there any?
Loads. You’ll have to get more specific though. It is an interesting industry. For example, Our turtle breeder was,(and still is) one of the finest breeders in the country. He was one of few people to have the permits to possess endangered species for the breeding programs that the state has. He would only deal with us because the previous owner of the business vouched for us, and because I was kind to his little dog who he took everywhere with him. In fact, it was because of this (“Maggie likes you, so you must be a good kid.”) that I was invited over to tour his facility, something that only about five people have been privileged to do. He is extremely reclusive and even has someone to the shopping for him. Turtles are his LIFE. He would only talk to me, and would only give me his availability list verbally. I had to then repeat it to him correctly before we would dicker out prices. He delivered everything personally, and only on Friday afternoons, when he “went out for stuff”.
Did you see that Law & Order: SVU episode where the eye patch dude from Lost and Lester Freamon from The Wire (who was really undercover) were selling exotic animals illegally and were using their hyenas to kill their mules after they were done smuggling monkeys inside hollowed-out basketballs through customs?
Is it mostly like that?
Could anybody buy an exotic pet or was there some sort of screening process?
What about big cats, did you sell those?
Do you have any good stories about weird customers? How did you get into the exotic pets business? What kind of licensing did you have to have? Are there particular animals that you recommend or don’t recommend? Anything so dangerous, obnoxious, tedious, or smelly that you wouldn’t even stock them? Do you or have you owned anything especially interesting yourself?
Morbo, At times it could be. Once we got a shipment of Australian fauna (mostly insects) that got through customs disguised as an ice-cream cake.
Gangster Octopus, For the fauna that were not restricted, pretty much anybody could buy providing they satisfied myself and my partner that they had the knowledge and facilities to keep the animal. For restricted level stuff they needed to produce the proper permits so we could ensure chain of custody. Sometimes we would do cash deals for people that we knew had permits but didn’t want to bother with paperwork.
Big cats are serious business and require facilities beyond our means. I don’t have the education or experience to mess with them. I know a few people who keep and breed them though. One guy has a huge white tiger he keeps in the house. It has it’s own reinforced sofa and cuddles with their dog who nannyed it when it was a cub.
I didn’t deal in: Great apes, hoofstock, big cats, or birds (I brokered all bird deals.)
What about ferrets? From what I’ve read, Marshall Farms pretty much monopolizes the ferret trade. Did you deal with them, another large-ish dealer, or small breeders?
Don’t be silly - I assure you he talked to the turtles, too 
Did you have Ocelots or smaller? What might one cost?
How would you go about ascertaining customer’s abilities to care for an animal? Did you have any experience/trouble convincing people that a specific pet may be more trouble than they’re worth?
Why did you get out of the business? Was what you were doing legal? Did you have ethical qualms about people smuggling non-native bugs into the country?
Whoah. allrighty.
The customers could take up an entire thread on their own. mostly they were regular people, but there were definitely a few nutjobs out there. I’ll share few if the thread slows down.
I got into the business after managing the reptile and fish dept for a chain store and becoming disgusted with the corporate practices regarding the treatment of my stock. I took another employee with me and we bought out an existing business.
Permits and licensing were pretty easy at the time, you just had to pay for them and demonstrate knowledge or experience on the care of the animals. Occasionally you would be inspected. it has tightened up since then and is more restrictive now.
Recommendations would depend on the customer’s means and attitude. My specialty was matching up customers to the right species for them.
I think that we stocked just about anything you can imagine at one time or another. We specialized in reptiles, amphibians and inverts but often acquired all sorts of crazy things for clients. MONKEYS are disgusting. If I never keep another monkey again I’ll be a happy boy. Fruit bats have a unique smell, as do all the mustelids (weasels and ferrets).
As for myself, I’ve owned a few rare tree vipers, as well as a puff adder that hissed like Darth Vader when he was excited or upset. I’ve also owned fish that eat rats, and an Amphiuma that could take off a finger if you let him.
Local breeders. Ferrets are common enough now that we would buy bottle fed kits from a wonderful breeder. We charged the same as the chain stores and made less on them, but the repeat business made up for it.
I was kind-of kidding (I’d bet that episode would crack you up) but damn!
OK, what animals give the stiffest penalty for getting caught bringing them in? I’m thinking either something endangered or destructive to the ecosystem.
All exotic cats were brokered through a third party, zoological imports inc. An ocelot will run you about 3 grand at a reputable dealer.
most of the time, I didn’t try to sell a customer on the first go unless they were after vanilla beginner stuff. After a few conversations I was able to judge their level of knowledge and I just asked them outright about their facilities. We took in a LOT of unwanted animals from people who got in over their heads. Most common were big adult male iguanas and albino burmese pythons from drug-dealers who were scared of their pets.
I had one guy who was dead set on getting a marmoset, a small, monkeylike animal. I tried to turn him off that for months. Eventually we hooked him up though and it worked out, but he bitched about it biting and shitting on everything for a year after wards.
I dropped out because the shop was not profitable enough. My partner who provided the financial investment did not want to get, or could qualify for a loan and we were basically breaking even. I decided to bail and look for greener pastures, but I’d go back in in a heartbeat if I could get decent funding.
For the most part everything was legal. Occasionally we’d bend the law, or “forget” to do some paperwork for a cash transaction if we knew the client really well.
I didn’t feel too bad about the bugs. Florida has ridiculously restrictive laws on invertebrates to protect the agricultural industry. The animals we got were for personal use, to provide a CB population for other enthusiasts. There is a precedent that if enough people get CB animals, and keep the silence about the first source, than CB animals with papers can be traded about without a lot of trouble. Really dangerous stuff is a big no-no though and I wouldn’t take the chance.
Well anything on the CITES list will get you arrested, and anything seriously endangered will get you in prison for a long time. The red list would be Great Apes and big cats. Other animals that could be a serious threat to the ecosystem, espescially in the fisheries will also buy you a hell of a lot of jail time. I wouldn’t touch most of that with a ten foot pole even if i was licensed to deal with it. Fish and Wildlife occasionally will raid someone who is compliant and seize all their animals until they provide the paperwork to prove ownership, even if there is nothing out of sorts with them. One time a client of ours had one additional venomous snake more than his filed paperwork stated. They seized all his animals and he had to fight to get them back even though he obtained the additional animal by the means of one of his snakes giving birth.
Do you think anyone was buying your pets to eat?
One woman would buy rabbits and guinea pigs from us to eat.
How How do you handle the dangerous animals/insects? Doesn’t knowing that one bite/sting/swipe can put you in the hospital kind of make it a lot less attractive?
Did you sell chameleons? I saw one at a pet store and those things are the coolest looking buggers. I’d seriously look into one if I didn’t have two cats who might see my new pet as a kitty treat.
Did you sell anything like this?