Tens of thousands of snakes, eggs and gravid female Ball Pythons are removed from Africa every year. Mostly from Togo, Ghana, Benin in addition to some other locations.



I dont think the poor suckers wacking the bush for them get paid much. Like anything else, there are a few exporters there that sell the unique snakes ie; genetic mutations, to contacts here in the United States for alot of money (I've read upwards of 100k in some instances). People try and sugar coat the situation and say the African people in the small villages benifit, but I really dont think so from what I've read.



The vast majority of the snakes are not morphs, only normals, which means they are doomed to suffer and die. Either on the dehydrated, parasite ridden trip over from Africa, or after they are purchased by some idiot at a pet store here in the United States.



I am not preaching. I care somewhat and it bothers me-true, thats why I talk about it and just dont ignore the uncomfortable truth. Alot of people who pretend to be animal lovers or enviromentalists, however, turn a blind eye to the facts and they are the hypocrites...plain and simple. Others, these are the people who get angry when you bring up the facts and will most likely attack me for this post, could care less about snakes, are just interested in lining their pockets, and would sell their own souls for a couple dollars...these people are the lowest form of dirt.



It IS possible to have enough captive bred snakes to support the pet trade. The incentive for $8 imported normals isnt the driving force behind the importation of this many animals and the rape of Africa every year. It has to be the morph money at the end of the day.



I wonder what will happen to the Ball Python export business if the morphs went away?



The ironic thing is that what took mother nature 20,000 years or more to create, man may have been able to strip away in under twenty.



Even now it seems the number of snakes found with really unique genetics mutations is diminishing. What are the chances of something as unique as a Pied being found now? Many of the latest morph finds have been het or homogeneous forms of the same mutation.



It might have taken 500 years for just the right two snakes, with just the right genetic mix to meet and then to breed. Now any snake the is even a little bit different is removed from the wild. The evolution of Ball Pythons has forever been changed. These are the facts.

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