Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Why are we throwing the baby out with the bath water? First of all if a burmese python had a snow ball’s chance in…. to survive outside of the miniscule feral range they currently inhabit, then boa constrictors from Mexico would be all over the United States. This whole proposal is being based solely off of the damage done by the brown snake in Guam, and now we are allowing jurisprudence to be set to permit the allocation of a number of other species (which most keepers are trying to “protect” while throwing Burms and Rocks to the wolves) to the injurious species lists, which sets them on the chopping block of being banned. All of the ball python keepers out there, that won’t come out of bed to defend Burms... Just wait until your pets are on the chopping block. Think about how much more injurious and potentially dangerous ball pythons will be to the wild than a brown snake? Ball python, Boa constrictor and colubrid breeders are among the largest sects of our community. If you think you’re not next, you need to trade in your rose colored glasses. We’re all going to get hammered on this in the long run if we don’t fight together. Get up off of your chairs and fight people!
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Jay Vella

No doubt retics will be on the chopping block next after Burms and Rocks.

exactly. they are taking small but detrimental steps in an all out ban of large boid snakes. its getting scary in our country these days. prepare for socialism at its finest
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retic is king of kings

1.0 Tiger Retic
1.0 Albino Tiger Retic
0.1 Striped Tiger Retic (het albino)
0.1 Salmon Boa
1.0 Albino Boa
0.1 False Water Cobra

Ah Socialism thats what you get for voting Democrat Just so you all know this was mostly a joke I can't resist an opening to make fun of the Dem's I'm not a huge fan of Republicans either
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"We don't inherate the earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children"

i would never vote democrat. and i agree, republicans these days arent much better and more trustworthy
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retic is king of kings

1.0 Tiger Retic
1.0 Albino Tiger Retic
0.1 Striped Tiger Retic (het albino)
0.1 Salmon Boa
1.0 Albino Boa
0.1 False Water Cobra

Given the popularity of burmese in the pet trade I was sort of surprised to see it happen this way. I'd have figured burms would have tons of people clamoring to keep thier snakes safe.

How could real breeders get potential new wild type genetic color morphs in for breeding projects?

winslow

I Am happy to do whatever I can! Other than the call lists what can we do to help at this time?

If you own a python, any python, or just love the snakes you have no excuse to not fight for the species. We are all in jeopardy here, not just the big snakes.

I called my states representative, and left her with some of the main point of concern that we have in the reptile community. I also left my contact info incase anyone wanted to discuss my points with me.

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I CAN DO?

How did the baby get thrown out with the bath water?? Only the import of Burmese and African Rocks was done away with, and allegedly an amendment is going to be put together in August to allow the captive breeding/ selling of the currently captive animals to continue. Are you really going to miss the sick and dying lots of imported Burms being shoved out the door of every local show in America for next to nothing? I won't. And you're still free to keep and breed your high end stuff... sounds ideal to me.
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James McGhee

1060 Exotics

That's after some work and comprimise. Originally, they'd planned to ban importation and interstate commerce, which would have effectively killed the burmese trade entirely.

And I don't see tons of WC burms anymore...I must attend all the wrong shows?

Hey James,

That was posted before the final decision came back. When that was posted, we had heard the support was less than stellar.. and we were trying to hopefully wake up the countless herpers out there who enjoy their reptiles but don't feel this relates to them. For some reason a lot of people think it was an attack on "them"... nothing could be further from the truth. We are as in depth in each segment of this industry as anyone. Just because we specialize in large constrictors doesn't mean we only care about them. The result was good news to us. We personally are fine with the importation of reptiles coming to a screeching hault like it did with psittacines years and years ago... it would be nice if the skin trade stopped with it... but that's obviously a pipe dream.

Take care,
Jordan

Honestly, while I'm not exactly going to rejoice in a ban on imports, I can see tighter restrictions on imports being beneficial to the hobby, and breeders. If your normal BPs don't have to compete with 15 dollar WCs, maybe you can make a profit on them, ya know? Maybe niles and savs wouldn't be in every pet shop for 50 bucks. Not a purely bad thing. My big peeve was when it looked like we were going to lose the ability to engage in interstate commerce with the genus Python--that would be a major kick in the nuts and probably wipe out most breeders.