Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everybody,

I am doing this for my college tech writing course (I have to take it to get into vet school). Please help me out. We are currently drafting proposals. I am proposing that some of the CITES quotas be reduced and that CB specimens be used instead of WC specimens. I just need to know the following things…

The current CITES quota for exporting reticulated pythons out of the wild is currently set at 162,000 specimens. This includes live animals, and those that have been skinned for purses and etc. I personally find this number to be excessive; do any of you feel that this number is excessive? If so, what would you lower it to?

The current CITES quota for exporting ball pythons out of the wild is currently set at 143,950 specimens. I also feel that these numbers are indeed excessive, and if you agree what would you lower the overall number to?

My last question is:

Would you recommend using CB specimens over WC animals? Please state why.

Thank You all

Evaggelos Klonis

1.0 Lavender Albino Retic
1.0 Het patternless
0.1 Super Tiger het patternless
0.1 Tiger
0.1 Het Clark Strain Albino

I find it interesting that the quotas are the same for a ball python, which lays on average 4 eggs, and a retic, which can lay up to 60 . Look at how filling quotas was reacted to under affirmative action - no one likes quotas. QUotas also don't neccessarily mean that this number is healthy, especially when population sizes of both species are hard to know for sure

i agree with reducing the quotas or protecting the species completely, but finding 200,000 cb retic/ ball pythons for skinning? - A. impossible, b. cb are more expensive than wc, c. snakes are as cheap/easy to breed large quantities of as a fox or rabbit is - the food costs would be HUGE to grow 200,000 pythons to substantial size to be used for meat or the skin trade

Those numbers do sound a little excessive. For your second question, I always go with CB.

-They are generally healthier
-They are free of parasites
-They are usually more docile
-You can be sure of their age
plus more