Free herps and enclosure

[Bighead]

Sorry- not for you - for me. This guy is offering to give me a 125 gallon tank with a wood and screen enclosure built on top of it containing a water dragon, a "pink spotted water dragon", 1.1 giant day geckos, and a bunch of fish. the problem is, he lives in the states and i live in canada. It's only 45 minutes away, but i'm not sure i can get it over the border. He is also moving on sunday so i don't have time to get a CITES permit, especially for a 3 foot lizard nobody has ever heard of (no i don't have the latin name or a pic). Any suggestions? I don't know how i can pass this up but I don't know how I can accept either. What should i do?! P.S. Much of it, maybe all, will be for sale if and when i get it so if you are interested, give me a shout. Thanks.

[Bighead]

Sorry, it's a "Pink spotted RIVER dragon" not water dragon. It's the same size as the adult water dragon, it has a purple dewlap and a pretty big crest. It also has quite the set of teeth and has drawn blood a few times. If you know what it might be, please let me know.

[Dozer]

*cough* smuggle *cough*

Dude, you're driving into Canada... not driving into the states ;)

Mike

[Lisa]

if the animal isn't cites then you don't have to get cites paperwork. maybe go to the library and check some books on lizzards and look for a similar animal. hopefully they won't be cites.

[JD@reptiles]

Originally posted by Dozer
*cough* smuggle *cough*

Dude, you're driving into Canada... not driving into the states ;)

Mike


nothing you haven't pulled before eh mike? ;)

[frogman]

A couple cereal boxes and a hot glue gun. Buy some groceries over there mix it in and declare it all as groceries and declare the tank as a gift and you shouldn't get harrassed to much.

Frogman

[Bighead]

I took mike's advice. I go across 6 days a week for work so most of the guards recognize me. I put everything in the back of my truck, and the lizards in a brown box with some fake plants sticking out so if they asked me what was in the box I could pull out the plant and say "decorations for the tank." Here's how it ended up going:


I got out of jail last night.... I was violated by some big oaf but it wasn't that bad. Anyway, just kidding. Hope I fooled somebody for a few seconds. I drove up, the guy said "where do you live?" I said, "Abbotsford." He said "Value of goods coming back?" I said, "Uh... zero." He said, "Thanks you." I drove home. I was probably pushing it a little bit, but it turned out ok. It ended up that my worries had just started. Look for my post in the general lizard discussion - http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32410

Quite the pickle I've gotten myself into.

[varanuskomodoen]

hehe:)!

[Corey Woods]

If you are going to smuggle animals out of the USA and into Canada it's probably not a good idea to advertise it on a public forum. Also, if you are going go get free animals from the States and Smuggle them into Canada it's probably not a good idea to tell people you got them for free and then try and sell them.

Just a though.
Corey

[Bighead]

Originally posted by Corey Woods
If you are going to smuggle animals out of the USA and into Canada it's probably not a good idea to advertise it on a public forum. Also, if you are going go get free animals from the States and Smuggle them into Canada it's probably not a good idea to tell people you got them for free and then try and sell them.

Just a though.
Corey

Thanks for the advice. I'll give you an extra special deal just for being so helpful.

Eat me.

[munchy]

nice work buddy.:thumbsup: how old are you? im in abbotsford too. maybe i know you?

[Jeff Hathaway]

I'm with Corey. Behaviour like this makes everyone look bad, and even worse to brag about it on a public forum. And people wonder why the authorities might have a hard time believing that someone wasn't *trying* to smuggle animals when they had actually made an honest mistake???

Since you go across 6 days a week, surely there would have been someone you knew over there who could have held the animals for you until you could bring them over legally, which would not have taken much for the dragons. You would have needed CITES permits for the Phelsuma, which probably wouldn't have been worth the effort.

Shame on you. BTW, don't offer me any deals... And do you realize that anyone buying those animals is also committing an offence? Maybe they won't be such good deals after all.

Jeff Hathaway
Sciensational Sssnakes!!

[Lisa]

You do realize that various agency's probably read the forums. And biting the head off people trying to help you probably isn't the best way to go about things.

[Bighead]

First of all, I would like to appologize for reacting the way I did. I may have misunderstood what corey meant. I felt like he was being demeaning when I meant no offense to anybody. If this not what you meant, corey, I am sorry. I also realize that what I did may reflect poorly on other users of this forum. Though I do not regret taking the animals, or taking them over the border, I didn't stop to think that posting what I did could reflect on the other users. I also did not intend to brag. I simply thought it was a funny story and thought I would share it. I know I didn't do anything heroic or something.
I talked to everybody I know in Bellingham to see if anybody could take it until I move back down in a few months. Nobody had the space to take such a big tank or the ability to take on the responsibility of caring for these lizards, even though I offered to pay for all the costs. I let my boss at work know what my intentions were, and she said that as a last resort, if they wouldn't let me take them across the border, I could temporarily keep them at work until I found them a new home. The previous owner intended to "let them loose" if I couldn't take them which would have obviously been a death sentence. Again, I know I'm not a hero or something, but I couldn't say no. I knew I would need a CITES permit for the water dragon and I also knew there was no chance of taking a mystery species over the border legally. The CITES would also take several weeks at least to apply for and recieve, which I didn't have.
I know that doing what I did wasn't my only option and I respect and expect others opinions that what I did was wrong.

Ok, I'm babbling. In short, I am sorry to Corey, Jeff, and anybody else in this forum whom I offended. I will be more discerning in what I choose to post in the future. Thanks for all of your resposes.

-Jordan