Warning About Buying Zonatas From Jerry Kruse

I want to warn my readers and the zonata enthusiast community about a huge problem that has developed over the past few weeks. A zonata breeder from New York named Jerry Kruse has sold some "zonata diseased" animals to another person and will not refund his money or remedy the situation. Not only is this highly unethical in my opinion, it risks poisoning the entire zonata community.

For those that don't know, zonatas have been known to get a pathogen generically named "zonata disease" in the wild and in private collections. Not much is known about this disease except that it is highly contagious and has ruined many zonata colonies over the years. At this point until everything is sorted out, I would not buy or receive any animals from Jerry Kruse until all the facts are known about his collection's health status.

I'm posting this here because the moderator over at Kingsnake.com has been deleting threads with some great information.

*******3/1/12 UPDATE**********************

Please go to Fauna Classifieds BOI(Board of Inquiry) and read through all the damning evidence of people that have been burned by Jerry Kruse. I hope this is the last I ever hear of him. DO NOT do business with him under any circumstances unless you want to potentially go through what Stu Tennyson is going through right now. **************4/16/13 UPDATE************************ Well it appears that Mrs Karma has come around and bit Jerry Kruse in the ass. I have heard from multiple sources that Mr Kruse's home was raided by US Fish and Wildlife agents last week. His zonata website has been scrubbed, with all the links gone. Only a front page remains. He is reported to have posted on his Facebook page "the world has ended". Some of the things that the US F&W agents were interested in were the Oregon zonata(state protected and therefore illegal to have in NY and a Lacey Act violation) and collecting various reptiles in the New Jersey Pine Barrens(this is all a protected area and no take zone). I have to admit that I am enjoying this schadenfreude. The guy had it coming to himself. My advice to you Jerry is plead guilty and throw yourself at the mercy of the court. If this is only a first time offense, you probably will not even get jail time. In the future, if you do something illegal, my advice to you is not to post these facts on a public forum such as Facebook or the Fauna Board of Inquiry Forum where you basically admitted to several overt illegal acts. How stupid are you. Now I'm getting hits on this blog by people from the New York Times! Can't wait to see what they write.

The Heat Is On......For Babies & Adults

Well I just turned the heat on tonight for all the adults. The babies got their heat a week ago. Everyone is doing great it appears. I lost two babies in hibernation due to mother nature. Oh well. I suppose it happens like that in the wild to. I'm always bummed when I lose a little guy or girl, but sometimes there is nothing you can do.

I've got my fingers crossed that it will be a good year. The het lavender Martir girl should produce this summer plus the regular Martir girl. I'll have five Juarez females that are ready and a San Jacinto zonata that I raised from a wild caught baby in 2007. This will be her first year.

The yearling lavender Martir girl is finally starting to grow a little, LOL. I'm hopeful I can keep her on a every three day feeding pace like she has been on for the last two months. My goal is to have her ready in three more years, sigh. You just can't rush this local of zonata in my experience. I wish I could. People are pounding down my door for babies. All I can say is just be patient.

I still have three 2010 male Juarez Agalmas available and four male 2011 Juarez babies. The price is $250 to $400 each. Email me if you have an interest and we can talk more.

I hope everyone has a great breeding season for your kingsnakes. Check back here often as I will be updating the blog more now that it is Spring.