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Men arrested after allegedly using exotic animals in paid photo shoots

By CNN

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    BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Two men are accused of using exotic animals and fire in a photo shoot in a parking garage of a Baltimore County mall.

Jayden Evans, 25, and 32-year-old Vernon Crowfey III were arrested and are now facing charges for the incident at the Towson Town Center parking garage on June 30.

Crowfey, the owner of photography company “Photogeniks,” was the photographer, and Evans was the animal handler during the photo shoot. Video and pictures from the incident show part of the garage floor was lit on fire while women posed with exotic animals like snakes and a monkey.

“We talkin’ about an empty parking lot, with no civilians, full of concrete and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a parking lot be set on fire with lighter fluid,” Crowfey told CBS News Baltimore.

He said they had permission to have the photo shoot in the mall’s parking garage.

“We spoke with the security at the mall as well. We explained to him that we was gonna have the fire flame photo shoot. He told us basically just be out before the mall closed,” Crowfey said.

CBS News Baltimore reached out to the mall’s owner to see if they gave permission for the photo shoot in the parking garage, but we have not heard back.

According to charging documents, Crowfey and Evans now face several misdemeanors and a single felony charge in connection to the photo shoot.

Investigators said they went to Evans’ apartment and found snakes, lizards, rabbits and a tarantula. The charging documents also allege a lemur and a spider monkey were not given proper care and that the monkey’s “spinal cord was fully exposed through its fur.”

“You can’t show me a baby spider monkey whose spinal cord don’t show through their back because they’re born that way,” Crowfey said.

According to the documents, Evans told investigators he had not taken any of the animals in for routine veterinary care and he had no documents for basic care. CBS News Baltimore reached out to Evans for comment, but he has not responded.

The two were arrested on July 16 after an undercover police officer attempted to schedule a photo shoot.

The Maryland Zoo is now taking care of some of the animals, including the spider monkey. A spokesperson for the zoo declined to comment on the health of the animals.

In Maryland, privately owning a primate is illegal. The law states that “a person may not import into the state, offer for sale, trade, barter, possess, breed, or exchange a live nonhuman primate.”

According to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR), primates, including lemurs, pose a public safety risk.

DNR says that lemurs and spider monkeys can cause health concerns to humans and themselves. Bites and scratches can transmit bacteria that can cause serious infections.

Lemurs can also contract and spread tuberculosis, and intestinal parasites can sometimes be transmitted between people and the animals. The lemurs can also catch influenza, COVID-19, common cold viruses, and other respiratory pathogens, which are more harmful to the monkeys.

Officials said spider monkeys can inflict serious bites and scratches and could become aggressive when frightened, stressed, or reaching sexual maturity. They also require a specialized diet and constant social interaction, which is typically not met in private homes.

DNR says that the restrictions on spider monkeys and lemurs are because of the combination of higher injury potential, specialized care requirements, and the possibility of diseases spreading between monkeys and humans.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

In record heat, a warming world has come to rely on China to stay cool

By CNN
Hong Kong (CNN) — With wildfires blazing and temperatures hitting record highs in Europe, one China-made product has never been hotter: air-conditioners.Europeans, who have been slower to adopt AC than those living in other parts of the world, are lining up outside stores and driving long distances in the hopes of securing an AC unit as blistering summer temperatures in some areas surge past 100 degrees Fahrenheit.Major Chinese brands Midea, Gree and Haier are reporting AC higher sales overseas, just as leaders in countries such as France, Germany and Belgium are threatening to impose tariffs on Chinese imports, which they say are damaging their own industries.While air conditioning accounts for a small portion of Chinese exports to the EU, China has seized on the surge in sales as evidence that European consumers need Chinese products.A column recently published by the official state-run news agency Xinhua criticized European policymakers for ignoring the needs of consumers, titled: “The air conditioner paradox: Europe is too hot for tariffs on China.”“Blocking Chinese ACs won’t fix Europe’s problems –– it will only make life harder for ordinary people,” the author of the op-ed wrote.The EU and China will hold discussions over the next few months to address the record trade imbalance of nearly 360 billion euros, or about $406 billion, as of last year. The gap has widened in recent years as China has ramped up exports, particularly of electric and hybrid cars that threaten to displace Europe’s biggest auto brands.“It makes trade negotiations extremely difficult,” said Cameron Johnson, a supply chain expert and senior partner at Tidalwave Solutions, a Shanghai-based consultancy.“If you’re a government, you cannot tell people, ‘Sorry, you can’t have air conditioning because we don’t want Chinese overcapacity.’”‘Too hot for tariffs’Other parts of the world have come to rely on China for air conditioning as well. In the US, where “heat domes” have led to extreme heat warnings in the south and central regions, Chinese brands account for 50% of the market, according to Euromonitor International, a market intelligence company. Globally, that figure reached 65% last year, the firm said.Veronika Kandusova, global insight manager for consumer appliances at Euromonitor International, expects that proportion to increase alongside global temperatures. Chinese brands were able to capitalize on high demand this year, especially in Europe, thanks to flexible supply chains that can rapidly develop new, localized products.European consumers have lagged behind the rest of the world in adopting AC, due to high energy costs, expensive installation fees and restrictions on retrofitting the continent’s older buildings. In the past, summers have not been hot enough to justify the trouble for most homes.The climate crisis is now changing that.Midea Group, one of China’s largest home appliance brands, designed its PortaSplitAC unit specifically for Europe by making it portable, quiet and low enough to keep from blocking European windows. The model has sold more than 200,000 units this year, doubling year-on-year, the company said.“European home appliance markets, long dominated by Bosch, Electrolux, Miele, and other established Western brands by default, are opening competitive gaps that Chinese companies are structurally positioned to fill,” the research firm EqualOcean wrote in a blog post last month. “Midea’s PortaSplit is the product that crystallizes the shift.”Those advantages translate to many other industries that could give China more sway in global trade, said Johnson of Tidalwave Solutions.“This is just the beginning,” he said. “As inflation starts to gain hold in Europe and in the States, people don’t want to pay more for products. So what do you do? Well, you have to have some Chinese stuff.”Jens Eskelund, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, said that European countries are more focused on addressing specific strategic segments and Chinese industrial policies than broadly inhibiting Chinese imports.“The EU is neither looking for complete balance — in the sense that every euro of goods imported must correspond to a euro of goods exported — nor to reduce its reliance on China for more widely available household appliances,” he said.Seeking hotter marketsChina also needs new markets like Europe. Facing a housing slump and declining consumption at home, China has ramped up exports to other nations to buttress slowing economic growth. China ended last year with a record trade surplus of $1.2 trillion.Even with rising exports, China’s reported second-quarter GDP was the lowest in more than three years.Much of China’s recent export strength is driven by high-tech goods like batteries, electric cars and solar. These have become known as the “new three” categories for export growth, as the “old three” –– clothing, furniture, and home appliances –– have tapered.As its summers grow hotter, Europe offers Chinese appliance makers a potential renaissance.Europe has the world’s lowest penetration rates for air conditioning, said Denis Depoux, global managing director at the consultancy Roland Berger, averaging about 20%. That’s compared to 90% penetration in the US, where Chinese exports would also face tariffs.“Europe is the prize,” he said. “If I am a Chinese manufacturer of air conditioning units, Europe is a very attractive market. It’s growing demand, it’s new, it’s affluent, margins are higher.”According to Chinese media, some regions like China’s eastern Shandong province have received government support to boost manufacturing of cooling products and other home appliances this year.Korean and Japanese appliance makers are also benefiting from booming European demand. Meanwhile, University of Michigan economics professor Chris Douglas argued in an op-ed this month that the state of Michigan should manufacture air conditioners for Europe.However, the seasonal nature of cooling demand will limit market opportunities as temperatures eventually ease.“In two months people will have forgotten that air conditioning was needed during the summer, but it will come again,” Depoux said. “Is it a meaningful, sustainable opportunity? I’m not so sure.”One sourcing agent in China was already encouraging retailers to stock up for next year, in a marketing video published to WeChat, China’s popular social messaging app, titled, “Europe’s AC Gold Rush! Print Cash From The Heatwave.”“Secure your market position before the 2027 madness begins,” she said, twirling and pointing to a room full of portable fans and coolers.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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