Our History

When Mike Biernacki started this company in 1992, he was young, ambitious, and had just arrived in Canada from Poland after completing his Master of Science. He was set to enroll in the PhD program at the University of Toronto and had everything lined up except the money to pay for the program.

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He decided to postpone his PhD for a few months, and he answered an ad for a job with a local exotic fish wholesaler who needed help with their reptile department. When he reached the point of running the reptile department, he decided it was time to part ways and open his own company.

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That is how Massasauga, his initial sole proprietorship, was born – and he never looked back.

The first years were tough, as most first years for new businesses are, and he was up against several seasoned, well-established competitors who already had sizeable shares of the reptile pet-trade market.

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However, he had unique contacts back in Europe and he was able to bring animals never before seen on the market to Canada. Massasauga was the first company to bring veiled chameleons to Canada from Czechoslovakia, how it was known then. Those contacts, and his commitment to quality, helped Massasauga to be recognized as a viable alternative to the bigger, longer-established reptile companies.

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Then, we got our big break.

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The American company Petstuff Inc. was looking to expand into the Canadian market and Massasauga was recommended by their reptile supplier in the USA, and so we made a deal. 

Petstuff Inc. must have been impressed, because after they were bought out, the company that bought them continued to use our services and allowed us to grow even more rapidly.

 

That new company was PetSmart. PetSmart back then was very different than the PetSmart you know today. Back then it was run by pet enthusiasts with a compassion and focus on pets, service, and community.

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Years passed and we continued to grow. We grew big enough to move to our own purpose-built facilities, with separate buildings for the reptile importing part of our business and for the breeding part of our business. We continued to supply more stores, finding new sources of reptiles and bringing to the Canadian pet industry the best stock in quality and variety. For several years we got to ride a wave of reptile popularity, initiated first by the movie Jurassic Park and enhanced by Hagen Corp. with their creation of the Exo-Terra line of properly configured terrariums.

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We had much success for many years. But eventually everything changes, and we needed to change too. So, when Mike was approached by MSR Imporium about buying the company, he had to do a lot of soul searching. But the main question was, why not? The reptile industry needs young, ambitious, smart people, and companies that are run efficiently by people with a strong moral backbone. Mike could see MSR Imporium in that role.

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Now, as for our future – we have exited the wholesale market, but we will remain part of the reptile industry.

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The corporation 1368098 Ontario Inc, operating as Massasauga Imports, has been sold to MSR Imporium. They kindly left us with the name Massasauga Imports as it has so much history and significance for us, so we will still be operating under Massasauga Imports, but we are no longer the corporation 1368098 Ontario Inc.

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Our new direction will have us concentrating on breeding in captivity many reptiles and amphibians. We love local breeders and now we are happy to be one as having local breeders will help deliver stronger, better-quality animals. Our main focus will be breeding bearded dragons and amphibians. These are at least the plans for today.

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We will be selling retail on our website and at reptile expos. We also will have opportunities to sell the animals we breed wholesale under strict conditions that have been agreed upon with MSR Imporium. We are also proud to be doing educational reptile shows for a large variety of organizations, events, and individuals too. For more information on our reptile shows, click here.

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Finally, for the customers who’ve been on this journey with us for a short time or a long time or from the very beginning, we would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your patronage and loyalty. You are important to us, whether we are Massasauga Imports the corporation or Massasauga Imports the sole proprietorship, and we wish you success in all your future endeavors.