Jenny started her interest in reptiles at a very early age, keeping brown snakes at the age of three. At four years of age a garter snake named Christine would watch Sesame Street with her. It was in the summer of 1983 that Jedi, a very large Eastern Milk Snake, entered the scene. With Jedi, Jenny began a public speaking campaign about snakes. Finding much misinformation and animosity towards these animals, Jenny was spurred on to attempt to reach the public with a more truthful and positive message. With lots of support from friends and family, Sciensational Sssnakes!! was born during Jenny’s university career. After leaving university, with a degree in Biological Science, Jenny discovered very few career opportunities in the herpetological field and so decided to create her own position. Jeff’s sacrifice, working a full-time job, allowed Jenny to concentrate on working with the animals and trying to reach the public with her message that “Snakes Are Good”. Today Jenny has high hopes for changing the general negative attitude towards snakes, and hopes to continue the success of Sciensational Sssnakes!! for many years to come.
Jeff grew up in Innisfil, on the shores of Lake Simcoe. Due to his time spent on, in, and under the water, he became primarily interested in aquatic biology, although he kept a few garter snakes, frogs, and a snapping turtle over his childhood. One of his teachers from Barrie Central Collegiate remembers him as “Mister Ecology.” At the University of Guelph (1989-1994) he specialized in Fisheries Biology, but took many of the wildlife-related courses as well, including Herpetology with Dr. Bogart. Perhaps his interest in Jenny caused his focus to shift from fish to snakes. Initially intending to pursue an M.Sc., Jeff had difficulty because his summer field seasons were all occupied by operating Kiddin’ Around Day Camp, which he started with other family members in 1991.
When the camp closed in 1996, he took a job with an aquarium, pond and fountain company so that Jenny could concentrate on Sciensational Sssnakes!! This gave him a wide range of experience designing and overseeing the construction of water features and filtration systems. His projects included the 400-gallon saltwater tank at the Varsity Cinema in Toronto, the 1200-gallon saltwater tank (with 2¼"-thick glass) at Chapters in Vancouver, and the baboon waterfall and rhino pools (500,000 gallons) at the Toronto Zoo. In 1998 he took a new position at Kenloch Company (part of The Pool Group), which designed and supplied filtration and computer control systems, primarily for the commercial swimming-pool market. Jeff also started an aquarium and pond company, Aqua Service Professionals, with two partners in 1999. Jeff left The Pool Group in 2001 and closed Aqua Service Professionals in 2002.
Jeff now devotes his time to Sciensational Sssnakes!! and working on renovations to get Scales Nature Park ready. He still builds the occasional pond or waterfall for someone, and does some troubleshooting for chemical control and feed systems for pool companies. In his spare time, Jeff assists with reptile conservation projects, fishes, paddles and SCUBA dives in the waterways of our beautiful province, and recently started playing volleyball again.