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.



It is a simple cycle.

- The people in Central America where they are coming from catch them and sell them because someone is willing to pay them to do it.

- The people paying them are willing to do it because there are clients to buy these snakes here in the US and in Europe.



Supply and demand.



The last, and most insidious link in the chain is breeders (like me). We still rely on the rather self-serving idea that a captive born snake is somehow worth more money than a WC snake. Therefore, it remains cost effective to remove them from the wild. In fact, sometimes when breeders put a high price on rare captive born offspring, it encourages commercial collection rather than decreasing it.



I've always believed the idea of captive breeding to reduce wild collecting pressure will only work when breeders are willing to sell the CB animals at the same prices as the WC animals (or below). Otherwise we are just encouraging and maintaining the commercial collection.
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Chris Harrison

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