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72 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 11, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2004 IGUANA NEWSBRIEFS

The IIS at the ISG Meeting in the
Turks & Caicos Islands

Joe Burgess, IIS Vice-president, repre-
sented the Society at the 2003 ISG
Meeting in the Turks & Caicos Islands
(see also the article on p. 27). He gave a
short PowerPoint presentation highlight-
ing IIS activities and projects over the past
year and passed around the current issue
of IGUANA. Both the presentation and
the journal were well-received, with many
commenting on improvements in the
appearance and content of the journal.

The presentation featured the IIS
participation in shows in Daytona (see
Editors’ Remarks, IGUANA 10(3), p.
96) and Seattle (see Iguana Newsbriefs,
IGUANA 10(4), p. 155), where mem-
bers promoted education and increased
awareness regarding conservation and
conservation specifically of iguanas,
announced that the IIS would host the
auction in Daytona in 2005, and
reported fund raising efforts to support
conservation through the sale of posters,
t-shirts, mouse pads, and other products.
A recent IIS donation to the Hope Zoo
(Jamaica) renovation of the captive
breeding and headstart facility for
Jamaican Iguanas (Cyclura collei) is an
example of the work supported.

The report on the IIS meeting on
Utila and the problems facing Ctenosaura
bakeri (see Iguana Times 9(3)) led to C.
bakeri being added to the list of ISG
funding priorities; with nesting beach
acquisition and education as the main
areas of concern.

Introduced Ctenosaurs on Florida
island damaging ecosystem?

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologist
Dennis Giardina has been collecting
Spiny-tailed Iguanas (Ctenosaura similis)
for investigations that will determine
whether this non-native species has been
impinging on native wildlife on
Keewaydin Island, off the eastern coast of
Florida. Recently captured and killed
iguanas, along with other frozen speci-
mens, are being sent to a laboratory at
the University of Florida, Gainesville,
where herpetologist Kenneth Krysko will
be studying their stomach contents. At
issue is whether these large lizards are eat-
ing the eggs or young of protected species
of shore birds, sea turtles, and Gopher
Tortoises. The origin of the Keewaydin
Island iguana population is probably
either a deliberate or accidental release.
Releasing non-native species into the
wild in Florida is a first-degree misde-
meanor punishable by up to one year in
jail and a $1000 fine.

Source: Naples Daily News

Activists Call for a 
Reptile Museum to Close1

Patrick Healy
New York Times — 27 November 2003

HICKSVILLE, N.Y., Nov. 26 —
Animal activists said on Wednesday that

they were outraged by a history of prob-
lems at the Long Island Reptile Museum
and called for the gallery of snakes,
lizards, and turtles to be shut down.

The activists, who have visited the
museum and taken some of its animals
for rehabilitation, called conditions there
the most deplorable they had ever seen.
During a visit by the activists in the
spring, they said, the reptiles were emaci-
ated and dehydrated, some were covered
with red and black mites, and some dead
animals remained on display.

In addition, they said snakes and
large lizards had escaped from their cages
and were crawling around the rafters, a
potential threat to visitors.

The museum’s director, Steven
Kates, while acknowledging that the
museum had its flaws, said conditions
had improved markedly in the last few
months. But the reptile rescuers, who col-
lected dozens of ailing animals from the
museum (with Mr. Kates’s permission),
insisted the animals there were still at risk.

“I don’t know what the place is still
doing open,” said Rusty Gilman, a reptile
rescuer who said she had taken 18 ani-
mals from the museum for rehabilitation.

The Nassau County Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has
heard the complaints and is investigating
the museum, which houses more than
200 snakes, lizards, and other reptiles.

“That has been a major problem for
some time,” said Harry Babb, deputy
chief of the Nassau SPCA’s Division of
Law Enforcement. “We’ve had vets up
there and experts from the animal world.
They’ve been trying to meet the require-
ments that we’ve set for them, and it’s
been slow going.”

This is not the first time the
museum and Mr. Kates have run afoul of
advocacy groups and the law. In April
2002, Mr. Kates and another man were
charged with cruelty to animals after offi-
cials received a complaint that a lizard at
the museum had had its jaw wired shut.
In 1998, the Town of Oyster Bay took
the museum to court, saying it was oper-
ating without the proper licenses.

Mr. Kates, who wrote the
Encyclopedia of Cockatoos and calls his
adversaries haters, opened the reptile

I G U A N A  N E W S B R I E F S

IIS Vice-president Joe Burgess making a
PowerPoint presentation at the 2003 ISG
Meeting in the Turks & Caicos Islands.

Ctenosaura similis is well-established and
widely distributed in Florida (see IGUANA
10(4):111-118). Photograph by Josiah H.
Townsend.

1 Reprinted with permission.



IGUANA  •  VOLUME 11, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2004 73IGUANA NEWSBRIEFS

museum in July 1995. The museum has
slightly fewer than 300 spaces for ani-
mals, and soon after Mr. Kates began
accepting donated animals from the pub-
lic, he found himself overwhelmed.

People would drive by the museum
and hurl their sick and unwanted pets —
ranging from reptiles to guinea pigs to
rabbits — from their cars and onto Mr.
Kates’s doorstep, he said in an interview
Wednesday afternoon. He said he found
himself with 60 boa constrictors and 50
iguanas, though he only had room for a
few of each.

“I thought I could handle it, and I
really couldn’t,” he said.

Mr. Kates said he had hired one of
his fiercest critics to improve conditions

at the museum. That critic, Lori Green,
said she had set up a rehabilitation pro-
gram for the animals and spent time
training the staff, which she described as
dedicated and caring.

On Wednesday, the snakes, turtles,
and lizards seemed content enough with
their heat lamps and plexiglass-encased
lives at the museum. They could be seen
snapping at goldfish, eyeing each other
for mating, and doing what reptiles do
best, which is to say, not much.

“I maintain order there,” Ms. Green
said. “The place is what it is, but it’s a
major improvement.”

Educational Signs for St. Eustatius

In light of the precarious status of the
Lesser Antillean Iguana (Iguana
delicatissima) on St. Eustatius (see Iguana
Times 6(3):51–56 and 8(1):3–6 and
abstracts of reports at this year’s ISG
meeting, p. 37), the IIS, in cooperation
with the St. Eustatius National Parks
Foundation (STENAPA), has produced
educational signs that are to be posted at
STENAPA headquarters, the botanical
garden, trail heads, the airport, the
tourist bureau, and local hotels and dive
shops. The iguana graphic was adapted
from a John Binns photograph by Joel
Friesch.

Donations Assist 
with Conservation Work

The IIS has received a donation of $3000
from Mr. Donald Tuttle and the Tuttle
Charitable Trust of Beaux Arts, Washing-
ton. This generous gift will assist in our
efforts to support Cyclura cychlura figginsi
in the Exuma Islands, Cyclura lewisi on
Grand Cayman Island, and Ctenosaura
bakeri on Utila, Honduras, among others. 

At the urging of 16-year old iguana
advocate, Jayna Fowler, the Pacific North-
west Herpetological Society has donated
$500 towards the Utila Iguana nesting
property fund.

Erratum: On p. 150, IGUANA 10(4),
the caption to the photo of Franz
Werner erroneously stated that he was
holding a Boa constrictor, when, in fact,
he was holding a Reticulated Python
(Python reticulatus).

Iguana Cages
& Supplies
for Zoos or
Private Keepers

KW CAGES
ADVANCED DESIGN

FREE BROCHURE

1.800.447.2243
www.kwcages.com

Walk-In Cages
Sunning Cages

Stephen Kates of the beleaguered Long Island
Reptile Museum holds Digger, a Cuban Iguana.

An example of our cage products is illus-
trated in the husbandry article, which
begins on p. 39.



74 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 11, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2004 IGUANA NEWSBRIEFS


