That is very likely as that's what I found in the 90's when I researched the numbers of 5 species common in the pet trade. I then made pie graphs with red for dead and green for alive. The percentages for the 5 year period was done on Boa Constrictors, Burmese Pythons, Water Monitors, Reticulate Pythons, and Tegu Lizards. The percentage of live compared to dead was astronomically in favor of the dead ones [skins]. I believe in most cases less than 10% of the total were live ones. I have those graphs still I believe. If I can find them I'll post the results...Interestingly enough as well was that importers for the most part import only babies while the skin trade targets adults or subadults[breeders] in terms of size. This was a program I did to demonstrate how the pet trade even then was used as a scapegoat in terms of being harmful to wildlife when in fact the skin trade is far more damaging in scope.
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Tom Crutchfield

www.tomcrutchfield.com

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