Beware of Casey Lauren Byiers (Rhasputin/EVLV/Eccentric Evolution)

[Hypancistrus]

Hello,
This is Tara Simmons, partnered to Lauren Kuta and part of Mason Dixon Reptiles. I was a part of this shipment and was at the airport that night. Here is my account of that evening and prior transactions with Casey. This is NOT her first time being underhanded and seedy.
That evening that the mice arrived was a nightmare. The flight was late and the mice were not on the import computer records. We had physical paperwork but not the computer back up so it took over 3 hours and 6 people helping before they released the mice. Then Casey met us at the door of the airport. She hovered over the mice as we opened the boxes and immediately started picking out the ones she thought were best. Even mocking the poor quality of the ones she rejected. (Which is doublely shameful to me. Since it insulted amazing mice and the people who very very generously gave them to us...as well as leaving the leftovers to the people who could not be there. Thank goodness her standards of what is good is not too great so great mice still were passed on.) She even attempted to take a mouse out of my hands that I was claiming.
She tried several times to put things in her cages that weren't hers. She slipped things into cages without a word and we had to keep counting over and over to make sure the numbers were right.
Nobody thought to question the genders of the abys that she took. And worst of all she tried to take mice without payment.
It was only because myself and the orgainizer put our foot down did she finally "find" a way to paypal Maggie though another friend. Otherwise she kept arguing that she owed anything...and then gosh, she didn't have cash...then she didn't have a atm card...then she didn't have a paypal account. So only then when we said she was not leaving with the rumpwhite buck until she paid did she find a way. It was rude and if we had not been strong women who knew she would pull this...Maggie would have never gotten paid back.
This is of course on top of the fact that she sold me a sick mouse that died. That happened this past fall. I arranged to get two show type splash mice. Both in breeding condition. What I got was a buck who was very out of shape and at least a year old, with no pedigree. He was however show type even if not good quality. The doe she gave me was a petstore mutt who was acting really odd at the time (running and flipping over and over) and who got sicker the next day. When I posted publicly what happened, she flipped out. She called me using another phone so I would not know it was her, and then cried and whined and begged me to remove the negative post. She even threaten me that I should not have used her name and ruined her reputation.
I was told multiple accounts by others she defrauded, and I am hoping they are willing to join and post here as well. I will not repeat second hand knowledge however.
x-posted on Faunas BOI

[RobNJ]

On another forum she hasnt' been silent....

Pretty interesting how she has no problem coming to her own defense, very recently, on a forum where nobody cares about the issue anyway. Speaks as loudly as her silence here does...considering she has been a very active member here as well.

[rebelrachel13]

Sorry to hear about this incident for both. I hope that this isn't going to be one of those long, messy ones that spirals out of control. I'd like to see it resolved swiftly and decisively. I hate it when a business is shut down and its reputation abated from a single action, but I am just as angered when a consumer is lied to and stolen from. I rarely go on the BOI anymore because it causes such a headache and oftentimes goes unresolved for months.

Good luck, OP. I know I'd never place a bet on "who done it" for these kinds of battles, but usually when the second party doesn't respond with a valid public rebuttal by this time, their "innocent-until-proven-guilty" defenses takes a huge hit. A post like hers that just complains rather than explains really destroys credibility. And, as far as I can tell, Rhasputin has seen this post as well. She was online BP.net at 7:57 PM today, a couple hours after the thread was posted.

[Stina]

She didn't even really come to her own defense...she didn't really defend herself....she just attacked me for telling people what she's done and is twisting words...like saying she offered to give me the mouse...which she did...but not without conditions...which is flat out extortion.

It's also not just what she's done to me...as you can see one other person has come forth and posted there so far...and I believe others will as well.

[I-KandyReptiles]

On another forum she hasnt' been silent.....she called me disgusting and whined and moaned, but didn't offer up any sort of defense of her own actions....

caseycallsmedisgusting by CSBeck, on Flickr

I also did not go in threatening to have her arrested. I went in wanting to trade the animals (give her her buck and get my doe), it was after she refused that I told her I was going to call the cops.

Can you post a link to this thread?


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I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?gu1en5

[Stina]

http://www.taxidermy.net/forum/index...,307865.0.html

[Kookie17]

Wow. I am fairly new here (joined just a few hours ago, was sent this way to get help with my ball pythons) I came across this thread because it was in the "new threads" option and decided to read it. I do not blame the op for being upset. Nothing is every "just a-" whatever. Mice aren't "just mice" They can be beloved pets, and very valuable (as proven here) what "casey" is doing is stealing. Even if they are worth nothing, a mouse, or anything, can be irreplaceable in our hearts. Just because it has little to no monetary value does not make it worthless (as this mouse is clearly not)
There is really not much else for me to say that hasn't already been said, besides i wish you good luck and I hope this all gets sorted out soon. I would also love to hear what the "defendant" has to say.
Her silence speaks to me, it says she is guilty and in the wrong and she knows it, and she doesn't know what to say to try and make her seem like she is right.
Good luck to all involved.

[Lycrisa]

I feel like I should mention something as well.
I am a breeder who was also involved in the shipment.
Normally I stay quiet because I'm a very timid sort of person.
But I feel like I am obligated to tell
about what I know since these people are already so courageous.
When I was a new user on one of the mouse forums I got really excited and was talking to three other people about starting a club since there were none that showed locally.

I started a thread which very quickly became hijacked by Casey, and soon after there was a new club I had nothing to do with.
This did not bother me, I'm a fluid person and I am very hard to offend.
It did make me aware of what she does.

However, on this new forum for this new club she started
there was one incident that I will never forget.

A lovely person I had never talked to before was bullied.
She was heavily pregnant and very sick so she decided to give up breeding mice.
She and her husband were giving people the opportunity to adopt any before they were put down. She even offered to bring them to people who were attending a nearby show.
She had at least 30 of her mice set aside for other people.
Room she didn't have and put out effort she was not supposed to be using.
Truth be told she was supposed to be -in bed- growing that baby.
Casey heard she was bringing mice to the hotel that she was also staying at.
And together with a few other people, she essentially made it impossible for her to
A)go to the show
B)Rehome any of the mice and
C) she isolated her.

I was the only one who stood up for that girl after they started mobbing her.
The thread was taken down and all evidence was cleared and she was booted off the site.
I spent a entire afternoon on the phone with this girl who was so stressed out from the way she was treated that she was even sicker than when she decided to give up the mice.
I find that downright..there are no words for that kind of cruelty.

That girl and what happened to her may not have anything to do with the shipment,
but I think it's just another one of those things that needs to be mentioned.
The ring leader in that was Casey.
Under the guise of admin.
That club is a sham.
It's a lovely idea to have a club locally but I've come to the realization that it's doomed to fail under a leader who is so...mean.


That being said I had thought that with such high stakes on our reputations,
that everyone would behave like civilized people. Almost everyone did.
I am utterly ashamed as one of the few who represent our fancy in the united states.
What she did, and continues to do is seen overseas, and I do not appreciate the possibility of being looked at and judged by one person's behavior.
It's taken something wonderful, and communal and turned it into something it never had to of been.


And Stina, I don't think my PM went through before, but do you have any need of a black mouse?
I have 6 and two tans if that helps at all. I know you didn't want to outcross yet, but the offer is there.

I feel awful that this has happened and if there is anything I can do, you let me know.

[heathers*bps]

I'm surprised Casey hasn't posted yet. If she's not going to (wo)man up and deal with the problem, I'd be surprised if anybody on this forum or others did business with her again. In the scheme of things, this is a small problem. However even small things can influence peoples' decision whether or not to conduct business with you.

Theft isn't a "small problem". It's shady, dishonest and wrong.

OP, I hope things get worked out for you. I could understand your frustration with all this.

[Jack]

Like many others, I have also had negative experiences with Casey/Rhasputin. On one small animal site she left negative feedback for a transaction that never happened, and lied about me and my animals for no reason other than the fact that she could not come pick up the animals she wanted in time and claimed that I had denied them to her (we lived over 500 miles apart and she could not make it to pick them up). I got the impression that she really did believe the things she was saying, so I did not know how to reason with her like two adults would.

When she produced "proof" of conversations that never happened, I knew I was dealing with somebody that could not be reasoned with.

I then complained to the administrator of the site about the unwarranted negative feedback, and he said there was nothing that could be done, but the feedback mysteriously disappeared after he had a chance to discuss it with her, and he wouldn't tell me why he made the exception, other than that "circumstances demanded that I remove her feedback in this case."

At different small animal shows I have seen her do things with other people's animals (including theft) and I hope those people will speak up because it is important for new members and the general public to know what they're dealing with. I've only met her three times, but I feel bad for her because I wish she didn't make things so difficult on herself and on others. In many ways she is a bright young woman, and I really do wish her the best. But I won't be dealing with her in the future, and before others interact with her I encourage you to take a good look at her past behavior as an indicator of future behavior.

Jack Garcia, Jack's Mousery, ECMA, AFRMA
Louisville, Kentucky