Ever since I was a kid, I have been interested in reptiles and wildlife. I would catch frogs and baby turtles and stuff them into my pockets… I drove my parents crazy! It was at eight years of age that I got my first snake. I even set up a small "zoo" one weekend with a friend of mine in my parents' garage for all the neighborhood kids to visit.... It featured a few snakes, frogs, turtles, chipmunks, mice and rats. By the age of 12, I was working with venomous snakes (without my parents knowledge of course) and by the time I was 13 I knew it was my passion. It went quickly from a few pet snakes, to breeding and collecting. I've spent many nights wandering in the woods looking for my favorite slithering friends… once again driving my parents crazy. I began working with bigger and more exotic things throughout my teenage years. I was lucky enough to find a job working with a man who trained animals for commercials. With his help, I got a lot of experience working with big cats, bears, birds of prey and so much more. I also spent some time working as a veterinary's assistant which taught me so much.

I've been fortunate enough to have experienced a lot in life. After high school I followed another passion of mine, music. During that time, I played bass in a rock band. While living in LA, I met C.C. DeVille of Poison and became his personal assistant. I've traveled the world and always found my way back to my first real love, which is wildlife and the reptile world. When I had enough of the music scene, I decided to move to Miami, Florida. I began learning the reptile business by working for importers and exporters. It wasn't long before I wanted to import and export for myself.

While living in Miami I met my wife Michelle. With my wife's encouragement, I decided to jump in with both feet and bought a crocodile and alligator farm. We left Miami and moved to Bushnell, Florida. After five years of bad partnerships and failed attempts, we found someone who had the same dreams and passion and went into business with RobRoy MacInnes and Glades Herp. We are still here today as Glades Herp Farm is still going strong, and through the ups and downs, we're honestly like family.

My kids are the ones I have to thank for my new mission. All three of them have a huge interest in wildlife and a burning desire to learn. It's really because of them that we are now on the newest leg of our adventure... Educating the rest of the world (and Stephen too) about these amazing creatures.

I've had so much fun educating my kids and doing reptile shows at their school that I quickly came to realize that wildlife education is so fulfilling. My hopes are to raise awareness and promote enjoyment of all wildlife. I hope to one day have our own zoo that is like no other.

Go Gators!

Robbie Kez

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING! HELP ME NOW!! I'M NOT KIDDING RIGHT NOW! O.K., I'M SORRY! PLEASE HELP ME! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE HELP ME!!" This is the way I often communicate or fearfully plea with my brother when I'm working with animals.

I am a city boy. I prefer the chirping of urban crickets (car alarms) to real crickets. I am fearful of watching "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" down here because I feel "that kind of thing can happen down here!" I am what you would call a rookie, a novice, a newbie and a chicken-sh*t when it comes to reptiles... But I'm learning!

My Brother and I always argue and bicker. There is only one aspect of life where I will bow to his expertise without question and that is in regards to reptiles. Actually, even then I repeatedly question him because I'm so cautious and fearful of getting bitten... I think I can trace my uber-fear back to getting a bite on the nose by his reticulated python when I was a young lad!

Since working with these animals, I have gained some knowledge and have become a little less fearful of many reptiles. But, I can say this for a fact, I don't think I will EVER lose my fear of venomous snakes, crocodiles over 4 feet long, and fresh water crocs and Cuban crocs over 3 feet... Those little bastids scare the hell out of me! I'm spending a great deal of time trying to get over my fears of most of these animals. I hope to replace it with a healthy respect for them, but this will be a long, slow process seeing as I hate blood (especially my own) and I hate needles... To me, reptile teeth and fangs are "nature's needles!"

I feed over a hundred alligators and crocodiles weekly with expired meat from the market... It seems that these living dinosaurs enjoy the smelly over-expired meat even more than the "just expired" almost fresh stuff. This causes me problems because I have a very weak stomach and a bad gag reflex! Even if I put cotton up my nostrils, I then have the realization that I am breathing this "putrid meat air" through my mouth and, "VOILA!"... That gag reflex in full effect, again!

I am a huge movie buff and have probably watched "Goodfellas" over 100 times... Even the edited for TV versions are entertaining (in a pathetic way) as I like to see how they butcher the dialogue. I often times paraphrase movie lines whenever I converse.

I moved down to Bushnell, leaving the greatest city in the world (New York City) in 2008. I moved to NYC after graduating from The Ohio State University and lived there over 14 years. I had a variety of jobs including music publicity, but really loved bartending in the city... it was Booze Nirvana! I miss the city every day, but I must admit that there are some pretty interesting things on this reptile farm!

Peace out and God bless The Ohio State Buckeyes!

Stephen Zoltan Keszey "Kez"