Yes, a decade or two ago this was a problem to some degree, however, if we are talking specifically about burmese pythons (I won't argue about ball pythons), you will find very few imported hatchling normal burms in the market place....look far and wide and you will only see a very small handful. Instead, what we currently have is a glut of captive born hatchlings, representing many different morphs, offered by private breeders who fully know that most of these babies that they are selling will eventually become abandoned, dished off from one owner to another, severely neglected, receive substandard care, or confiscated at some point in their lives. While I have absolutely NO negative feelings towards private breeders (I am one myself...but I no longer breed burms, just rescue them....my breeding efforts focus on: eastern indigo snakes, eastern massasaugas, gila monsters, olive pythons, ball pythons, green tree pythons, smooth green snakes and a few other surprises), I do feel that they (we) need to fess up and take some responsibility in contributing to the problem. When I go to some of the various breeder expos, I become somewhat infuriated by how we have reduced these animals to nothing more than an expendable "investment" in a deli cup...pretty sad.

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