Reptile & Amphibian Forums

If they allowed us to own, breed and sell snakes but stopped imports. Think about it, who benefits from imports? Not breeders, the prices on normal Balls has dropped so low they are practically giving them away. Not the consumer, wild caught snakes come into this country with diseases, illnesses and mites. Not the snakes, a lot of them don't survive the trip and more die once they are here and not only that, they spread diseases to existing collections causing more problems.

Now who would benefit if the imports stopped? Pretty much everyone. There are plenty of snakes in captivity now and plenty of breeders out there that should be able to keep up with any demands. And another thing, without so many Burms coming into the country, breeders and collectors could go into the Everglades and catch them and keep them instead of being killed off by hunters.

Again, I agree with banning imports, but this bill doesn't just do that. It is going to ban imports as well as inter-state transport.

I am working on establishing a reptile rescue in my town. I worry this bill is going to result in people suddenly deciding to abandon their large snakes even though it is still legal for them to keep them.
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Lincoln, NE
0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly
2.0 Normals, 1.0 Thayeri, 0.1 Thayeri X Alterna, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

The point is fairly moot as they don't care about import they want to get rid of the ones already here. An import ban has pluses and minuses on both sides really not worth debating.

Just for clarifications snake mites are native to the US not Africa - you'll get ticks and disease from imports - mites are ours.
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Tosha
JET Pythons
The Blog
nihil facimus sed id bene facimus

The problem with banning imports is that it's a slippery slope. Once they get their foot in the door, a precedent is set and further legislation will be easier to get through congress and the senate. A little amendment here and there to a formerly "acceptable" ban on importation and voila: PYTHON BAN.
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Spider

Developing countries make money on imports. Ghana makes money on import ball pythons, and the tax money from those babies goes back to preserving wildlife refuges. (I did some research for a school report on it.)
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

Let's not also forget that banning importation (and exportation) ends us doing any business with our Canadian breeder friends and our European breeder friends. It doesn't just cover importation of WC and CH animals out of Africa. It covers ALL importation and exportation.
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Robins Nest Reptiles

You wouldn`t have ANY morphs if there were no imports. And your incorrect on the health and survival rate of imports. You obviously have never been to a responsible importers place of business.

typo: you`re incorrect

I dare you to go "collecting" in the Everglades! So, imports make ball pythons cheap? Maybe OVER breeding them is whats making them so cheap??? The importation has given you everything you have today, so that's one benefit in your favor. Every ball python, normal or quad morph is only here because of importation. I think it's hilarious when people keeping morphs start talking about how worthless importation is to the hobby. What did Brian at BHB say that one imported ball python made him???? How many people now own that morph? Where did it originate again? If someone is breeding 50 female ball pythons trying to make as much as they can, I'm not going to feel sorry for them when they can only get 10 bucks for a normal. If you think about it differently, you're getting paid to advertise your hobby. The newb pays 10 bucks, gets into the hobby, spreads the word, creates more buyers, and comes back to upgrade his/her own collection down the road. You just got paid for something you deemed worthless, and potentially created several new customers. WIN!