Sorry Tormato—I was mostly irritated at Vivarium and couldn’t see how you could support him at all. I don’t know that much about the really expensive boa and python morphs because I would never pay that much for a snake. Okay, maybe if I won the lottery or something…

We have one boa we keep strictly as a pet and my corn snakes. In the corn snake world there are plenty of people trying to breed new colors and patterns and I really respect the breeders out there. Maybe it’s because there is less money in corn snakes but the breeders I have talked to are so helpful to beginning hobbyists. They are involved on the forums and seem to care about people being responsible pet owners. I find the genetics fascinating and can almost see how creating new morphs can be compared with art. Andy (above) made a good analogy comparing breeding and creating music.

Obviously, there is a market out there for high-end morphs and this is a capitalist country. I have no problem with people making money off their reptiles. I do agree that if it is causing a problem with irresponsible pet owners then licensing is a possible alternative as long as Fish & Game does not discriminate me against simply for owning animals they don’t like as pets. I know that in some states they make the licenses next to impossible to obtain just to restrict anyone from actually owning the animal. I take good care of my animals and don’t have a problem with fair licensing and inspections…(but what is fair? I hate to leave that up to politians!)

I don’t really think the high-end morph breeders are the problem. How many times when a snake escapes and harms a person or another pet has it been someone’s $10,000 piebald boa? I doubt that happens very often. If you pay that much for a snake you probably know where it is. It’s more likely the person who caught a rattlesnake and kept it (then got bit), or I heard about a single mom who bought her son a baby alligator and didn’t know that it had gotten to be 5 feet long until it mauled her son. I think ignorance is often the real problem that we need to be concerned about.
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Anna

Corns
1.0 Snow - Cornelius
1.1 Ghost(pastel) - Eek & Boo
1.1 Amel - Parker & Scarlet
0.1 Hypo - Nikko
0.1 Anery - Missy
0.1 Hypo Hurricane Motley - Cordelia aka Cordy
Boas
0.1 Columbian (BCC) - Bella
Lizards
0.0.1 Leopard Gecko - Leo
Rats
0.1 Dumbo - Dirt
Cats
1.1 Siamese - Blue & Fiona
0.1 Gray DMS - Druscilla aka Dru
Horses
1.0 Thourghbred (Hunter/Jumper) - Morgan's Majesty aka Cody

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