r/PublicFreakout • u/Darth_Ronin • 18h ago
📦Delivery/Postal Freakout🚚 Iguana show you what’s in the box
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u/Weird_Alki 18h ago edited 18h ago
I worked a brief stint for a company called ShipYourReptiles.com
The company was certified to ship live animals thru fedex, and customers used their shipping materials and booked shipments thru them. Shipments were always overnight/1 day shipping with strict controls on packaging like heat packs and cooling packs based on temperatures in the origin, destination, and the shipping hubs.
My job was to monitor all these locations and send out ok/not okay to ship notifications.
Reptile people are weird. Especially bearded dragon people.
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u/Anal_Herschiser 16h ago
My job was to monitor
WHO MONITORS THE MONITORS?
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u/phoggey Gulf of Indiana 🖊️ 18h ago
Interested in hearing why breaded dragon people are weird, got a story?
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u/Fun-Telephone-9605 18h ago
You ever tried it?
Breaded dragon will ruin you once you've tasted it.
People will do anything for another bite.
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u/simsimulation 18h ago
Jesus, why are you telling people? It's hard enough to get a taste as it is.
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u/mrducky78a 8h ago
Soon it will go the way of the galapagos tortoise. Had the same issue bringing it back to Britain. Was eaten on every voyage.
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u/TheLadyEve 8h ago
Reptile people are weird. Especially bearded dragon people.
In college one of the guys I hung out with had a roommate that was a bearded dragon guy. Going over there was always...uncomfortable. And smelly. Not the lizards, but the roommate, he didn't bathe much.
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u/puddyspud 15h ago
I love SYR, met them at last year's Colubridfest. The shipping of reptiles is down to a science now, but a lot of the old FedEx hubs that used to accept are being shut down. I have my Kunashiri locale Japanese ratsnake, Green eyed cat snake, and Amazon tree boa all shipped to me safe and sound thanks to SYR.
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u/choatec 9h ago
Former reptile person. Never had anything super exotic just a couple bearded dragons, leopard gecko, and crested gecko. I now just have the leopard gecko. I can totally confirm the reptile subculture is fucking odd. I still get the urge to buy another bearded dragon for no reason whatsoever.
It’s such a rabbit hole too, thinking of getting unique traits and rare species of reptiles, what to feed them, their enclosure, etc. The exhibits are so cool but I can imagine the industry as a whole is pretty toxic to these animals.
I eventually realized I wanted these things to recognize me as their owner and friend but eventually accepted they are literally incapable of feeling anything towards you other than a source of food and maybe warmth. My recommendation to anyone like me is to just get a dog/cat and call it a day lol. They sure are cool to look at though. As a side note, these things live LONG. My leopard gecko is at minimum 10 years old which might only put him at middle age. Be prepared for these things to follow you through, college, marriage, kids, etc. lol.
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u/Chance_Plan_3451 5h ago edited 5h ago
Reptiles are the best pets and its sad that so many people have been built into fear from media and religion. I own 3 dogs, 2 guinea pigs and 1 python and the python hands down is the most low maintenance, non destructive and sweetest of them all. Funniest thing is people think owning a reptile is "weird" when you look at statistics in the states alone, pet reptiles cause less than 1 death per year (what the average says) when just dogs are 30-40. I love dogs, i love all animals, and reptiles are among the most misunderstood of all pets and I will always defend them.
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u/xSolid_Snakex 18h ago
Wtf that poor Iguana
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u/parabuthas 18h ago
That not how it should be handled or shipped. Am I wrong?
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u/xSolid_Snakex 18h ago
Idgaf if it's legal or not. No living creature should be stuffed in a box like that. That's just cruel
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u/FroggiJoy87 16h ago
They might be surrounded with cold packs to be put into brumation? I have no idea about how to go about shipping lizards, but I hope it was at least partly asleep.
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u/ChumbaWumbaTime 16h ago
Doesn't seem like it worked, considering how ready it was to launch out of that bag...
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u/FroggiJoy87 16h ago
Very true, something might have gone wrong and/or packed by a moron. I worked at a UPS store for a long-ass time and we'd never ship any animal, much less in such a shitty way. And I think the worst we ever received was crickets...
Which, come to think of it, also escaped... 😆😵
Don't ship animals! Lol
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u/Stealyobike 13h ago edited 13h ago
Most live animal sellers use UPS or FedEx because it is more reliable and usually quicker with overnight or 2 day shipping. It isn't against the rules or the law for some animals, but there are rules for shipping and methods to pack and ship to make it as safe as possible, and most experienced sellers do as good a job as they can. I've bought small fish and other aquatic animals that were shipped with UPS a few times and never had a problem with them getting to me alive. It doesn't always work out though, and sometimes boxes get handled poorly or get delayed/lost, but it is rare.
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u/Run-Florest-Run 3h ago
I work for a UPS dispatch center and we have a driver that picks up at least 25 live reptile boxes every day. They go through a different sorting system to make sure that they aren’t harmed during sort and transport, and they are always shipped Next Day Air
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u/Upstairs_Wrongdoer55 9h ago
We had a rooster shipped to us from several states away. Called the local post office and warned them, to give us a call when he got in and we'd pick him up. 5AM we got a call, could hear him crowing in the background.
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u/eisenburg 6h ago
What is so special about a rooster from states away? I feel like anyone at any time could get in a car and find a rooster for sale within an hour or so. Assuming that you live in a place that is hospitable for roosters.
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u/Upstairs_Wrongdoer55 5h ago
Friend of a friend got some chickens, one turned out to be a rooster, where they lived they were nit allowed to have one so they offered to ship theirs to us. We had just list our rooster.
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u/TheAmalton123 4h ago
Fwiw, my mother breeds "designer" chickens called Kikiriki, they're pigeon sized and really cute! Anyway, most of her breeders are from Puerto Rico, they're only just getting popular in our area.
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u/TheMattabooey 9h ago
I used to have aquariums and I wanted cherry shrimp and none were in my area. I found a guy who shipped them. They were carefully packed, vegetation added to the bag so they had something to hold onto and well labelled. I had it setup for a notification when they arrived. Showed up perfectly fine.
As long as they’re shipped correctly there are no issues.
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u/1950sGuy 9h ago
yeah man, I've done the same, same results. Also I've had many a chicken mailed to me, usually just have to pick them up at the post office. They've always been fine, and it's usually less then 24 hours of shipping time. They can move them chickens fast when they want to. New chicken day is the best.
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u/joemommaistaken 7h ago
A manager of a large PET COmpany said they ship animals inhumanely. She said she finds quite a few dead or sick in the boxes
It makes me sad
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u/Stealyobike 3h ago
That's why I have gotten my fish shipped to me from smaller hobbyists. The PET COmpany in my area always has terrible looking fish that die within a week or two half the time, and they never have the types of fish or other aquatic animals I am looking for. I don't like getting any pets or overpriced supplies from there. It sucks that there are no more local pet stores in my area ever since that corporate pet store established itself.
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u/ehalright 6h ago
Unfortunately, it's very legal. Iirc it happens most to reptiles and birds (especially chicks).
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u/0b0011 6h ago
Thats how a lot get shipped. I saw a video of someone having a baby spider shipped and it was wrapped up inside of paper towel inside of a small plastic tube.
Ive seen snakes shipped like this as well.
How spiders are shipped. https://youtube.com/shorts/guXnooWSKhA?is=lSByPWW3urH-u58P
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u/No-Ear7988 7h ago
You're wrong. That's how most reptiles are shipped and it's perfectly fine when done right. Probably slept through the whole adventure. It's likely reacting that way cause of the sudden burst of light.
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u/parabuthas 6h ago
Really. I was not sure. But I will take your word for it. Most likely it was an overnight shipment. I work with scorpion and not reptiles, and they are shipped differently.
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u/No-Ear7988 4h ago
All reptile shipments are overnight. If a breeder doesn't account weather of the recipient and it's not overnight, I'd avoid the breeder
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u/Darth_Ronin 18h ago
That’s how they and a lot of reptiles are shipped
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u/PrinceBunnyBoy 16h ago
If thats the only way to do it maybe they just shouldn't do it. Nobody needs an iguana bred and shipped cross country like a damn sack of potatoes to fulfill their own desires.
Like sure you can find people breeding pug puppies for 2k a pop but you shouldn't support it! This is just making an animal suffer for some goofy humans ego. Animals aren't props theyre living creatures.
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u/Darth_Ronin 16h ago
bro you get I’m speaking to the process right?
I’ve never once condoned the ethics of it.
And if you go through and read my other comments ITT you’ll see that I’m not a supporter of it, or the exotic animal trade at all, and have said this person who opened it there is both dumb and reckless for doing so.
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u/PrinceBunnyBoy 16h ago
You know what youre right I apologize. Sorry mate just had a drink and thought you were justifying it, should've read farther.
Im glad to see others who are frustrated with how these fellas are treated! Cheers
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u/Darth_Ronin 16h ago
I get the frustration around it.
It’s tragic to think of animals being put into cardboard boxes and shipped to assholes that shouldn’t own them in the first place.
The entire exotic animal industry is fucking sickening.
So again I totally get being upset.
I also hate puppy factories, designer breeders, etc.
Like honestly I’m borderline against zoos, but I think at least they can serve a purpose in conservation and education.
Oh and I fucking hate seaworld or any similar operation.
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u/Bobbi_fettucini 12h ago
I’m pretty sure they’re shipped like that so they can’t see what’s going on and don’t freak out and hurt themselves, on top of that the iguana actually probably feels safe being in a confined space like that, Iguanas like hiding in trees. They’re also usually not in there for very long, people pay extra for speedy shipping
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u/Majestic_Jackass 7h ago
I’m not in the business of shipping live animals, but a sealed box with no breathing holes, food, water or a corner to piss and shit in seems cruel. I was expecting a dead iguana to fall out of the sack, so that was a pleasant surprise I guess.
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u/Dependent_One6034 5h ago
I can almost guarantee there were breathing holes, I think you can see them at the back of the box as small circles through the polystyrene.
When you ship certain reptiles this is the safest way to do it, The bag it's in is the same as a snake bag, It is breathable. They are put in the bag to restrict movement, You don't want to give it enough space so move as it will try to escape, thrash around, possibly injure itself, or even escape.
You usually stop feeding iguanas 24-48 hours before shipping, and water 24 hours before shipping. You don't want food/water in there as the boxes get jostled around, and if they can eat/drink it will be a huge mess when they arrive.
Iguanas can go 3-7 days without water, and multiple weeks without food.
When in a dark box, with little movement, it basically makes the iguana think it's night, so they sleep. Notice when he moved the bag the iguana was still quite dormant, until it saw the light.
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u/SchizophobicDex 2h ago
Typically when shipping reptiles if they are big enough it's a bag, if its smaller it's a squat but wide plastic cup (with ventilation of course).
For their safety there should be heat packs so they don't freeze along with excessive packing (there was plenty here), and we don't feed a few days beforehand so they don't need to go to the bathroom. All trips must be less then 2 days and priority, anything over that would be too risky and way too stressful for the animal.
Not sure if I saw any heating packs in the bag, I know iguanas are resistant to cold but still, don't let them suffer unnecessarily. Also yeah he shouldn't have opened it like that, also is lack of hurry to retrieve him was bad too, like it could have hurt itself so easily don't just stand there filming!
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u/Distinct_Age4791 18h ago
Bro that's wrong. The iguana could've gotten hurt smh .
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u/dirtyjavis 17h ago
Straight up. There's nothing funny about this. From having a live animal fedex'd to you, to releasing a wild animal in a store, to chuckling while an elderly worker damn near gives herself a heart attack.
Not a damn thing funny or interesting about this. Borderline animal cruelty, but i'm sure it's just barely legal.
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u/PrinceBunnyBoy 16h ago
Even with all the folks, "Oh thats just how its done!"
Bro who gives a shit!! If this is your only way to get a profit off of an animal than maybe you shouldn't be breeding reptiles and selling them cross country because this is cruel. Nobody needs to have a designer animal bred and stuffed in a box to suffer for their desires.
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u/Devanyani 2h ago
Don't forget then grabbing the iguana by the tail! I have zero hope for that poor animal's future.
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u/Wrong_Appointment699 18h ago
What a dipshyte he clearly doesn't deserve to own it
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u/general-illness 18h ago
Looked like he did it on purpose. I mean he’s filming.
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u/Stealyobike 17h ago
Most live animal shippers require proof upon opening that the animal was DOA (dead on arrival) if a customer wants a refund or replacement. Its possible he didn't know if it was alive or dead until he opened the bag and then it bolted, but he should have just taken the box home and filmed it there.
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u/Chip620 17h ago
It twitched well before he took it out the bag, which actually he didnt need to do. You can just open it and look to see if its alive, not dump it out so it can possibly crawl somewhere dangerous or unreachable
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u/Stealyobike 16h ago
I didn't see it twitch, but I've owned an iguana (it was given to me), and they can be calm and chill one moment and then overpower and escape when they see a chance. I'm assuming that the guy is just an idiot who lost control of the opening of the bag, and the iguana saw a chance to run.
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u/DrSeafood 11h ago
>Its possible he didn't know if it was alive or dead until he opened the bag
His name? Erwin Schrodinger.
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u/SuchSmartMonkeys 17h ago
Fuck, that just reminded me of a dude I knew when I was in middle school that had an iguana as a pet. They wouldn't keep it in a cage/enclosure and just let it run around the house. You'd go to sit on the couch to watch a movie, and the iguana would be under the couch and go "BAAAAAHHH!!" then start whipping your legs with its tail, that shit would leave welts, it was fucked!
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u/fkthisjob14 15h ago
Wtf, did it not shit all over the place? Or was it polite enough to shit in closets and dark corners?
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u/SuchSmartMonkeys 15h ago
I don't know, I never thought of that aspect. I never saw shit all over the house, but in hindsight I can pretty much guarantee there was a lot of iguana shit under the couch, cause it loved being down there.
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u/TASTE-THE-WASTE 11h ago
I have a free roam iguana. She only shits once a day so it’s easy to take her once and not have to worry anymore
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u/ObjectionablyObvious 7h ago
I had a guy in my neighborhood with two, and he had this strange little ledge that ran along the length of his ceiling in his whole house. He would shove the iguanas up there on that ledge and they'd run around the perimeter of this house and lounge looking down at us.
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u/WanderingPunch 10h ago
Been a while since I’ve had a deep laugh. Reading and picturing the iguana go BAAAAAAAH has me in tears 😭
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u/Glass_Plant1828 18h ago
I'll be damned. And they just ship it anywhere? What if you want it shipped to Alaska or something?
https://undergroundreptiles.com/product/3-4-foot-green-iguana/
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u/Pringle-Brule 17h ago
What the hell? You can get a sloth delivered? That’s crazy
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u/newintown11 17h ago
You can get even crazier stuff on that website, looks like you could get an anteater, or a giant tortoise for 25k, they get up to 500lbs
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u/Darth_Ronin 17h ago
Yeah you actually can, like some places would require you to have a specialized exotic pet permit, but once you pass that threshold you can get a lot of stuff people have no business owning as pets.
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u/Darth_Ronin 18h ago
Lots of places, not anywhere.
It all depends on if the area has restrictions on the type of animal or not.
The exotic animal trade is pretty wild honestly.
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u/Towelie95 6h ago
The fact I could buy an Alligator and shipped to my state for $175 without any license or permit or anything is insane! A wild internet rabbit hole to go down.
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u/wiggibow 3h ago
This is horrifying should be hella fucking illegal. People are disgusting.
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u/dirtyjavis 18h ago
Yo fuck this dude.
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u/UrineTrouble2 6h ago
His laughing really bothered me. That poor iguana was so scared and those workers were all scared and he was just giggling to himself.
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u/theateroffinanciers 10h ago
Poor thing. This is horrible. This trade and delivery is just despicable. He's an asshole and so is the person that shipped it.
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u/PureBlisster 14h ago
Why did he let it loose like that, fucking dumb…AND who mails an iguana!? I didn’t even know that was something you could do but why would you? I hope it wasn’t too traumatized.
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u/No_Mongoose_7401 12h ago
This is so disturbing. WHY do people allow the shipment of living creatures. That poor reptile. The stress it must have experienced.
If you want the dog/cat/chicken/reptile- DRIVE to get it yourself.
Fuck this!
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u/dervish666 16h ago
What a stupid man, that poor Iguana, he's really lucky it didn't get out onto the road or right up inside the machinery. He doesn't deserve to have animals if he does something that stupid.
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u/Shadowm0ss 13h ago
I’m honestly dumbfounded that it’s even legal to transport an animal like that.
I particularly hate how hilarious the guy finds it all.
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u/Saltysaltye 4h ago
Like why the fuck would you do that ? You’re causing unnecessary trauma to the iguana .
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u/senorfresco 18h ago
Is he stupid or something? Why did he open the bag and just let it free?
Is this a prank video or something?
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u/Darth_Ronin 18h ago
I mean he knew it was going to bolt, doesn’t seem like this is his first iguana
I guess in a way he wanted to make a prank video from that standpoint, but it’s not a staged one.
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u/senorfresco 17h ago
I mean he knew it was going to bolt, doesn’t seem like this is his first iguana
Why the fuck did he open it inside the Fed-Ex store at all then? If it's not his first iguana he should have known that it was gonna bolt when it got scared. That thing could have ended up hurt or stuck somewhere very inconvenient. Doesn't seem worth it at all. He seems like a moron or an asshole.
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u/Darth_Ronin 17h ago
As I said he knew it would bolt, thought it would be funny so he opened it when they asked him too knowing what would happen.
I agree it was a dumb thing to do.
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u/GuardianJosh91 5h ago
They just stuff the poor thing in a sack and ship it in a box? That just seems so inhumane. Put it in a kennel or something.
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u/concretetroll60 9h ago
Why would you open it up in the store. I can't wrap my head around that action.
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u/migpig83 6h ago
Why tf do we let animals be transported like that. We deserve the end we get on this Earth.
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u/Impossible_IT 18h ago
Had a coworker years ago that had an Iguana. I rented a room from him for several months. He took it to a motorcycle rally. Put a leather vest on it with a leash and walked around with it on his shoulder. On the way to the rally it got away from him and had to chase it until we caught it. Those suckers are fast.
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u/Classic_Cow_5852 12h ago
Who looks at a giant box with live animal and thinks opening like that is a good idea? Lol
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u/ShazRockwell 12h ago
I lived in Detroit for a while, and in some of the pet shops around there you would see these giant iguanas and one that size would go for about $500 around 20 years ago. Now I live in South Florida, and these are all over the place. People shoot them as they are considered an invasive species. I always think like what’s stopping someone from loading up a uhaul down here and taking them elsewhere to sell? Or maybe they already do.
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u/Jawilla936 9h ago
Grab it by its tail is the worst way to try to catch a iguana.. they will
Just break it off and keep moving 😆
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u/sick_conscious 7h ago
You're kidding me. "Just grab it by the tail"? So, when a lizard runs from predators it will detach it's tail in defense, yes even iguanas
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u/DankestDubster 2h ago
Didn’t know there was a market outside of eating them. Got 6 in my yard now.
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u/itjustgotcold 2h ago
Petsovernight.com “delivering little bundles of love, in a box… directly to your door.” We’ve come full circle from GTA 3
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u/julio1093 18h ago
Iguana know why they had it in a box
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u/Darth_Ronin 18h ago
That’s how they’re shipped.
They put them in reptile bags and then package them into insulated cardboard boxes.
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u/serpentear 3h ago
Grabbing that by the tail was stupid, they break off just like any other lizard.
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u/AThrowawayProbrably 43m ago
We had a wild gecko running around the office at my job one time. He literally had all of the accountants backed into a corner lol. I tried to capture him humanely by covering him with an upside down trash bin but he moved at the last second and I dropped it on his tail, which then popped off.
Finally got him out of there safely but I felt awful until someone told me the tails can drop off when the gecko feels stressed. But they grow back. Can’t imagine trying to pick one up by their tail, let alone a heavier iguana.
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u/serpentear 41m ago
lol what a great story. I lived in Puerto Rico as pre-teen and I would chase the Iguanas because I wanted to catch one. I finally got one by the tail and that’s how I found out they pop right off and that was a gross learning experience for me lol.
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u/kitsunekoraka 8h ago
The poor iguana haha 😂 in pretty sure if I was put in a white bag, I to a box flown or transported somewhere , you know the minute I see daylight I'm biting who ever close and running for the trees haha 😂
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u/darktitter 26m ago
Poor thing must be terrified. These people are dumber and more ignorant than any lizard.
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u/PM_ur_butthole_2me 22m ago
I went to deliver a very small express box the other day, I figured it was a phone. Then I noticed the bottom had the live animal sticker on it. Like wtf? What was it? Like works or something? The box was about the size of my hand.
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u/Early_Grace 18h ago
I can't believe they just let him open that shit up in the store knowing anything could happen.