Fans of reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates packed the Saratoga Springs City Center this weekend.
Some people have dogs. Others have cats. Lamar Enzor and Chiara Mainolfi have two dogs. And a dozen lizards and snakes. And an owl or two.
Enzor is the first to tell you his reptilian pets are just as good companions as his canines.
“They will sit on your hand, on your arm. They’ll sit in your lap, sometimes they’ll rest on your shoulder. Just however long you want to keep them. In fact, the big one I showed you there will come to the window of the enclosure and scratch to get out. OK, see? You should be persuaded by now,” said Enzor.
Mainolfi even got into falconry 12 years ago.
Today, they’re bringing three new lizards back to their Fort Edward home, or petting zoo, including a deep green Caiman Lizard.
They’re known to bite, but 65-year-old Mainolfi isn’t worried.
“But all of my lizards I train by using food as a reward, and they’ll come out onto my lap. And—my lizards all know more than some people. I’m just saying. They know their names, they have manners at the table when I feed them, you know, I’m just saying you don’t find that often anymore,” said Mainolfi.
There’s a sea of vendors. If you’re looking for something creepy and or crawly, it’s here.
“My name is Mark Bardon, I’m from Granville, and I just bought two ball pythons,” said Bardon.
It’s not just reptile vendors, though. Everyone has to eat.
“It’s a great venue, great spot, a lot of good vendors. Most of us know each other from doing the circuit. We’re kind of carnies. Consider me a—I’m a rat carnie,” said Robert Euvino.
Robert Euvino has been running Squeals on Wheels, a rodent popsicle pop-up, for a little more than a decade.
He’s got a row of freezers packed with zip-locks with rodents of various sizes ready to be eaten.
“The frozen thawed is like the oil of the industry. Almost 90% of the animals here are feeding on the frozen which is preferable. And it’s just safer for the animal, it’s a bit more humane and snakes can sometimes be a little bit finicky, they can be fussy, and so you’re never sure if a snake is going to eat. And if you’re buying live now you might end up with a pet rat or mouse that you weren’t planning on,” said Euvino.
Devin Robinson is one of a handful of vendors selling everything you’d need to make a bioactive tank.
“Essentially what a bioactive environment is, you’re creating a slice of nature in a small aquarium, enclosure, terrarium where you have animals that are producing waste, some microfauna which are breaking that waste down into nitrogen, then plants that are absorbing that nitrogen as fertilizer,” said Robinson.
His stand, Bioactive, sells isopods, the crustaceans that help regulate an enclosed ecosystem, plus plants and tree bark to build an enclosure.
While they breed their own isopods, they source their bark in various ways.
“So, now, it’s funny,” said Robinson. “If we like drive down the road or I’m sitting in traffic, I’ll turn out my window and go ‘oh man, that piece is incredible!’”
Deborah Dumas began breeding tarantulas when the COVID pandemic hit.
“Absolutely, everybody I knew said I was crazy. ‘You are crazy.’ I said OK. When I did my first show I asked them if they still thought I was crazy and their jaw dropped like what. So, I’m building this for my retirement and I love it all the way around, and it is very lucrative,” said Dumas.
Dumas says she started out as scared of spiders as anyone else. She blames the 1990 horror flick ‘Arachnophobia.’
“They are really a lot more afraid of you than you are of them and they are actually not the monsters that you think will chase you down. They will run away and hide. They want to avoid any conflict with humans. They’re terrified of them; they will run away. They’re actually very comical,” said Dumas.
Allen Both runs Major League Exotic Pets. He’s been in the industry for nearly four decades. He’s holding a blue and red panther chameleon.
“As a kid I was always really into animals, I wanted to be a veterinarian. I got involved in basically pet stores and then I started breeding reptiles in the 80s, I started breeding snakes. So, from there it sort of escalated and at this point I don’t know what else I would do,” said Both.
He’s come to love the reptile community. He’s been helping organize shows like this for years all across the country.
“I mean a fear of snakes is a huge thing, that’s a common misconception. Snakes are great animals, they all have a purpose, even the venomous ones. But the harmless ones can be extremely beautiful, extremely docile and make really good pets. That’s one very common misconception that snakes are slimy and icky and evil. Which they’re not,” said Both.
Snakes have had a bad reputation from the Garden of Eden to Indiana Jones. But Both’s always preaching the scaled bible, happy to help anyone overcome their fear of snakes.
“Reporting for the Southern Adirondack Bureau, on the campus of Skidmore College, in the Saratoga Springs City Center, with a Ball Python around my neck, I’m Aaron Shellow-Lavine for WAMC News.”