• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
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    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Inquiry Guillermo Riddle - Account: santiagoriddle - mexican species

R

Robert Walker

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Does anyone personally know this individual?
Name listed: Guillermo Riddle
Account: santiagoriddle
Email listed: [email protected]

Name listed elsewhere as: Santiago Guillermo Riddle Rodriguez
Selling:
1. Mexican box turtles = 1.1 $2,000
2. Yucatán box turtles = 8.8 $13,000
Anyone know the legal status of acquiring/selling these in the USA?

Claims to be from El Paso, Texas
santiagoriddle said:
Yes I do live in El Paso Texas and I bought these from a friend Rene Trejo
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Elsewhere on the web, during the same time frame, claims to be from Eagle Pass, Texas 500 miles away from El Paso.

In addition, not a single IP from this person comes from Texas.
 

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Don't hesitate to step in and share more about yourself...
 

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Mexican Box

I've been wondering where these specimens were coming from as well. Brownsville Zoo in TX used to have a surplus of CB T. mexicana.
 
Guillermo, can you produce any evidence that these animals were collected and exported legally, or that they are captive bred from legal parents?
 
Just a note on the IP address thing: I use a VPN called IPVanish, and it causes my perceived IP address to bounce around if I'm on my cell phone, making it look like I am not where I actually am. I think most VPNs function this way, so I wouldn't take IP addresses as the only proof needed to decide whether or not to deal with someone.
 
FYI: Account (santiagoriddle) was unable to produce a valid Texas ID despite promising to do so. As a result of this and various other factors, said account is now 'Banned'.

Selling native Mexican & Yucatan box turtles with a Texas profile.
You can put the rest of the dots together at this point and figure out where all of his IPs were really coming from.
 
He is consistently lingering around, trying to use his banned account. He still has our email if he wanted to produce a valid ID, alas, he doesn't.
 

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Robert Walker said:
1. Mexican box turtles = 1.1 $2,000
2. Yucatán box turtles = 8.8 $13,000
Anyone know the legal status of acquiring/selling these in the USA?
Click to expand...


This probably won't answer your question. But here's what I found.



Yucatan Box Turtle Distribution

The Yucatan Box Turtle is an endemic species, meaning that the entire known species is isolated to a single area. The only known location of the Yucatan Box Turtle is the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, for which the turtle is named after. It is the southernmost subspecies of box turtle and is heavily isolated from the other subspecies; more so than any other type of box turtle. When first discovered, it was even believed not to be a subspecies but an independent species of its own.
yucatan.jpg
Acquiring one in the United States is almost impossible. There are only a few examples of Yucatan Box Turtles being kept in captivity in America. Few studies have been done and little information is available; but the locals of Yucatan believe that the turtle’s population may be dwindling.


In addition to what he was trying to sell the turtles here for, I found that they sell for 10K USD plus per pair in japan, and there is some question as to the legality of the species there, and questions being asked if by chance they were smuggled. Now that's not to say that would be a legal situation here.

There's not much out there about this specie.

Good Luck Robert!

Lynn Peterson
Big Time Reptiles
 
Does he actually have the turtles, and is (it appears) illegally selling a smuggled species?

Or is he just claiming to have the turtles and will take the money and run once he makes a sale?

I'm not sure which scenario is worse, honestly.
 
The former. There are various ways to perceive it, but the former is the situation.
 
Darn. These people give the whole hobby and herp business a black eye. I hope that he gets caught and ends up in jail.
 
bcr229 said:
Smuggling
Click to expand...


If that's the case, then indeed he should be jailed..My understanding, he didn't smuggle any box turtles, he purchased them from a "Rene'? in El Paso.

If in fact they were smuggled and or illegal , whether by Rene, or himself, he has openly advertised them on a couple well known national websites, Fauna being one of them, where's the Feds, if in fact they're illegal......


Just My 2 Cents......

Lynn Peterson
Big Time Reptiles
 
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