In N.J. Corn snakes are considered an endangered species. Seems to be like white mice and goldfish pet trade wise. There appears to be no reasoning with the powers that be. Easier to make a law than be realistic about it. A handful of knuckleheads who have to have wildcaught versus thousands of tax paying, law abiding, permit holding hobbyists that would rather have a captive bred, non parisitized beautiful Abotts type Oakatee corn type. It makes sense when you think about it....? A LONG time ago when it started it supposedly had some thing to do with some one who was caught poaching them in the Barrens. When questioned respectfully further for numbers of arrests, stats to back it up etc. it seems there was very little backing it up other than they have no way of telling wc from CB. Law enforcement wise thats like saying you caught 2 people with with fake licenses so everybodys drivers documents can't be accepted as valid. It's how knee jerk politics/laws go. Most of us would rather spend $50.00 dollars on a quality animal we will keep and treasure for years rather than walk through ticks,mosquitos and brush to get some scaggy biting, nervous ho hum looking corn snake but what does common sense have to do with it?
Recently though I ran in to a woman at the top that seems to have her act together and is a decent reasonable person in the permit office. Need more like her. Maybe theres hope?
Next time you go to a reptile show and see HUNDREDS of inexpensive corn snake hatchlings practicly being given away remember that in N.J. they are viewed on the same level as Bald Eagles. And folks wonder why average good folks can get serious resentment to authority/government officials instead of being whole heartedly supportive of them working on their side.
Sorry for the rant....
I used to keep a lot of Corns.
The typical hobbyist can breed a hundred in a year easy.
It's theorized they came up in railroad ties years ago by some so they may not even be NATIVE to begin with.
Bob.
Are they large enough to dispose of incriminating evidence?
