Charlie with friend - a Wooly Monkey
NHM: "Like who do you see as the 'good guys' and who do you see as the 'bad guys' in the exotic animal business?"
CM: "Do we have enough time for this?"
NHM: "Our readers will love it!"
CM: " The best guy ever is John Shanahan at 'Emerald Coral & Reptile'. John always pays his bills and is easy to work with. Of course you need to know when to do stuff with him - when he is on the wagon. Don Kaiser in Texas was great to work with too. He died of 'Pigeon Fancier's Disease'. Kind of bizzare, considering he was a medical doctor. In Europe I have delt with Graham Harper for a long time and he is like gold. And I never had a problem with Ray Van Nostrand, he was a pretty good guy to do business with. But his son . ."
NHM: " I know, a big loudmouth born with a silver lizard in his mouth."
CM; "I guess I should put 'L.A. Reptile' at the top of the list too. Those people treated me very well. I thought for a long time that Mario at 'Zoological Imports' had stiffed me bad on some parrots - but now I am fairly certain that my wife did get the money and lied to me about not getting it. This was around the time of my divorce from her."
NHM: "Now the bad guys?"
CM: "The worst? That is easy - Robert Sands. He got to me bad, but that was before he had the well deserved reputation in the reptile business as 'Mr. Rip-off'. And that fag father of his . . ."
NHM: " Charlie - let us keep to the dealers."
CM: "Well Sands Sr. was involved in the biz too. Anyway, there has always been the flaky European dealers, like Van Dyke - and a few solid ones, like Frank Vercoman. The Japs were always good with their money. The worst animal dealers always drop out of the business - one way or another."
NHM: "I remember the Dutchman Van Dyke. When I was in the tropical foliage business in Miami I got ripped off by another Dutchman in that business too! Are business people over there natural scammers? Not to say anything bad about the Dutch in general - I have a Dutch son-in-law and a Dutch sister-in-law who might read this! Ha! So of all the countries where you lived and worked, what country did you like best and which was the worst?"
CM: "Honduras was definitely the best. Nicaragua, after the fall of Somoza, is the worst."
NHM: "I remember the Somoza days when it was really nice in Nicaragua. In fact I was in the Corn Islands when the Sandanistas started up in '79 and spent several days walking through the bush from Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, to Puerto Limpera, Honduras, with my suitcase on my head to get out of there! What about Africa?"
CM: "I have been to Africa, but just as a visitor. I went to Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon with the big time German animal dealer Walter Sensen, He was shipping out Pigmy Elephants, Goliath Frogs, Mandrills, and Gorillas. Of course with the things he was doing he suffered the same fate as the guy you and I tried to buy the baby Burmese pythons from several years ago in Pinang - Anson Wong."
NHM: "You mean they are both in jail. When I was in Vietnam in '95 I found out that Anson had been buying reptiles from Vietnam during the 20 year U.S. embargo and bringing them to Malaysia to ship to the U.S. as Malaysian herps. I was a bit worried about cutting into his business by setting up a direct export operation (Green Nature) from Vietnam after the embargo was lifted. But the Vietnamese are not as ruthless as the dealers in Paraguay, where they chased out J R McDonald with their death threats. Who was the strangest person you ever dealt with?"
CM: "Well, you remember Judd Biggs, the burned-out Canadian, and Donald Moffet, the crook of all trades. Moffet was the most dangerous American I have ever met in Latin America. Some say JR murdered him, but you are probably right about him getting killed running guns during the Contra War in Nicaragua. That was how he made money in McAllen, Texas - running guns, drugs, and whatever between Mexico and Texas. But the strangest? That would have to be Billy Dew, the bird dealer from Florida. On his first trip to Honduras, I asked on the phone how I would recognize him when he arrived at the La Mesa airport. He said he would be the one in the red dress."
NHM: "Is it with some affection you remember him?
CM: (ignoring my question) " Funny how so many of those birds guys are so . . . 'effemenant'. And so many of the reptile people are druggies, like Sands, Carson, Shane - I heard he was dead now too."
NHM: " Must have taken a really big box when they laid him to rest. For sure I had more trouble in the exotics business with reptile customers then with any other type of client. The marine fish people were the best to deal with."
With the catch of the day - Peacock Bass
CM: "But not the fresh-water importers - those guys are the worst! I worked with some exporters of fish in Colombia and they got screwed left and right by Miami importers - especially by Adolf at 'International Fisheries'. And whatever happened to Brian Blackwood?"
NHM: "He disappeared into the woodwork. Probably went looking for a job with a steady paycheck. As you know, people looking for a steady income never stay in the exotic animal business. No health plans or 401K programs - the only benefit to working in this business is the absence of boredom. Of course the independence and thrills can come at a high price. Any regrets on this strange journey you call your life?"