Look I don't mean to be a stickler - but you are making a lot of assumptions and you have no idea of the 99.9% number you threw out. You pulled that one out of....



Before I proceed --- I am not trolling you here so do not read this as though I am questioning you or calling you out. I just totally disagree. We are men here - we can disagree and still be friends. But...



You can't tell me that natural "hybridization" between animals that are geograhically close (like between Yellow and Black Rat snakes in NC or Eastern and Florida Kings in FL) is the ethical equivalent of a California x Florida King cross breeding.



It is not. You will never convince me. These animals evolved differently in different climates with different habitats and prey animals, thousands of miles apart, over a million years.



I think some of these snakes are pretty to look at - like your axanthic brooks kings for instance. They are really pretty. However, if it were up to me (and luckily it isn't) - I would euthanize or sterilize all of the hybrids and wacky morphs I could find. Your hybrids are undoing a million years of evolution and are ethically wrong --- any way you slice it.



Think about what happens when one person breeds a 50% king x 50% Honduran Milk back to a pure king and then does it for a few more generations. How do you know what is what any more.



Nature is already under enough pressure on our continent and captive gene pools may be all that is left in who knows how long - 20 years? 30 years? 100 years?



I believe that the hybrid breeders are ruining our captive gene pool and you don't even know you are doing it. Just because you can breed a cali king with a honduran milk doesn't mean you should. Similarly - just because you can breed a "lavender" cali king to a florida king to eventually get "lavender" florida kings doesn't mean you should do that either.



Rainer - again - I am not trying to get on your "enemy list" and you will never be on mine... Just my thoughts...
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Peter Jolles

East Coast Colubrids

www.eastcoastcolubrids.com

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