I was bothered (and still is) when I saw numerous ads of honduran milksnakes for sale in the classified ads section that are "wild caught". Just go to that section and for the last week, there were several ads from different breeders who are selling these wild caught ones. Several points I want to bring up here in the forum as I strongly feel against capturing wild animals and plucking them out of their native habitat where they were born in the first place:



POINTS:



1) I honestly cannot see why capturing these snakes from the wild has any benefits anymore, given that there are a lot of captive breds that are available for the public.



2) These "wild caught" honduran milksnakes must have been imported from Honduran and South America(not even sure if it's legal to capture these animals from their native habitat and export them to us). I saw some documentary from PBS nature how some animals like the Amazon parrots and some other types of parrots that were smuggled illegally into the US via crate trains. The officials intercepted and discovered the crate and 90% of them were either dead or close to death because of the heat. You cannot help but wonder if there are some wild caught honduran milksnakes that have been smuggled here and ended up dead.



3) But the biggest concern of mine is the depletion of these wonderful wild types honduran milksnakes from the wild and disturbing the natural balance of the ecosystems back there. Breeding honduran milksnakes is soooooo easy and I do not understand why people are still catering to the notion of selling or buying wild caught types.



I would very much welcome any inputs, including those from the other camp that cater to wild bringing in wild types by capturing them from the wild.



Thanks,
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RAY

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