I think comparisons to the AKC are misguided, actually. There's a world of difference between naturally-occuring species and subspecies on one hand, and man-made breeds on the other.

It's a complete mystery to me why people want AKC-registered animals. All it guarantees you is that it's descended from other AKC animals. The only benefit is that you can show it in AKC shows, but if you don't show your dogs there is no benefit at all. A dog can be AKC and be very far from the breed standard (not to mention inbred, genetically defective and unhealthy).

The only benefit of a registry for pet reptiles might be to verify locality information. This would of course require excluding animals with unverifiable localities, which is 99% of the reptiles on the market. Plus, most people just aren't that interested in locality data.

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