Wow, right on Horridus! Spoken like a true veteran of the “other” forums, I agree with you. Too bad the name “Bull” snake is already taken, it would be a good name for any snake being sold as “pure”. As far as the hobby is concerned it is really just a matter of what the thing looks like compared to common field guide standards and accepted hobby morphs. Most of those classic field guide pictures were selected for outstanding individuals and never represented the true typical normal type you would be far more likely to encounter. I have seen Florida panthers in the wild and I can tell you it is quite shocking to see a skinny rumpled mangy looking thing compared to the brushed and blow dried cat you see in those nature documentaries. That’s about what the pure locality field guide die hards are representing as “real”. They are not. All captive produced snakes are basically domesticated versus wild. There is a big difference and most honest people would say the domesticated ones are better.
I use to work at Animal Control and the newspaper would feature a dog for adoption every week. We would get dozens of calls to adopt the one who’s picture was in the paper. When that one was gone, nobody wanted any of the other dogs. That’s what I think of when someone wants an Okeetee because they read about them in that book and it said they were outstanding beauties. They don’t care about the other one that is the exact same thing. So we breed some Okeetees and now those are no good because they are really not from the Okeetee Hunt club hallowed grounds. Surprise! The captive produced Okeetees are better! The purists will be keeping the mutts! The production of domesticated hybrids/intergrades/creations/classics will benefit the purist by preserving those wild things they worship- because nobody will want one. Sorry for the rant, I guess I like the hybrids...

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