Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What about making a Ball Python Breeders Association. Members would buy and sell under "guidelines" set up by some of the knowlegeable breeders, your business would be "watched" closely the first year to make sure you are following the "rules" and selling quality animals and calling a "duck" a "duck." If a dispute arose, the panel of chosen members would decide quickly what remedy to suggest...any thoughts?

You have a pastel for sale, it would be a pastel, you have a ghost for sale, it would be a ghost...

Dave

If it could be done, it would be a good idea-this was mentioned a couple years ago by another poster, but nothing ever happened.

Let me first agree with you completely, How ever once this board was assembled who would pay for it? The reason things never get done is becuase the private sector does nothing to fund special commitees and we the people always rely on the government to do this. Also if private funding were to handle this commitiee whos to say that it would not become bias. For now we have to rely on good judgement and reliable breeders and dealers. I think your suggestion as been brought up in the past many times before but in the end we always need special funding from a non bias group. If you know of such funding then please take the 1st step and form the commitee. Also what are the penalties to a distributor for false representing color morphs?? Who would uphold these rules. There are so many levels to this suggestion that would need to be handled and properly sought out. Any one else with some thoughts on this???

Sounds good. Central hub of people with impartiality. Tough job. If they are paid positions (I think the amount would be relatively low since it would be someone interested in snakes that would take the lead role) people would be interested.

The lead would have the largest job dealing with the law and fed attorneys, setting up the avenues for prosecution, penalties, and generally setting thinks up legally for any problems that should arise (these are high value animals which approach fraud over penalties).

Then there is an issue of genetic testing... which is possible... with money. Once solved, we could send animals for testing to this impartial group. This is almost like an escrow service (which I love to use but hate to pay their higher than average fees). Insurance is a consideration as well (which is available now) which would drop in price as new companies are added to the mix.

As for price fixing, this would not be a consideration in this type of system. It would only be for "cleaning up" the industry legally (no accusations here, just stating the recurring posts of people being ripped off with normals has hets, allegedly). Prices would be set as it is now, via telephone, email, etc then the deal is finalized with each party's fulfilling their obligations to the central hub.

As for payment for the new corporation (central hub of people) the breeders who wish to participate in this would pay a monthly/yearly fee. Board of directors would be setup to ensure no funny business, blah, blah, blah.

Just food for thought and get some reactions. The best ideas ever have came from brainstorming and just suggesting ideas.

Please feed back and thanks for reading.
Dave

Sounds good. Central hub of people with impartiality. Tough job. If they are paid positions (I think the amount would be relatively low since it would be someone interested in snakes that would take the lead role) people would be interested.

The lead would have the largest job dealing with the law and fed attorneys, setting up the avenues for prosecution, penalties, and generally setting thinks up legally for any problems that should arise (these are high value animals which approach fraud over penalties).

Then there is an issue of genetic testing... which is possible... with money. Once solved, we could send animals for testing to this impartial group. This is almost like an escrow service (which I love to use but hate to pay their higher than average fees). Insurance is a consideration as well (which is available now) which would drop in price as new companies are added to the mix.

As for price fixing, this would not be a consideration in this type of system. It would only be for "cleaning up" the industry legally (no accusations here, just stating the recurring posts of people being ripped off with normals has hets, allegedly). Prices would be set as it is now, via telephone, email, etc then the deal is finalized with each party's fulfilling their obligations to the central hub.

As for payment for the new corporation (central hub of people) the breeders who wish to participate in this would pay a monthly/yearly fee. Board of directors would be setup to ensure no funny business, blah, blah, blah.

Just food for thought and get some reactions. The best ideas ever have came from brainstorming and just suggesting ideas.

Please feed back and thanks for reading.
Dave

I seldom weigh in on threads, but couldn't resist on such a slow day at work. Supposing this was feasible (sorry...I'm a professional wet blanket) to orchestrate, it could have very deleterious unintended ramifications. Namely, price-fixing. A loose-nit, generally adopted, set of "standards" a la AKC would be a great idea, but to have an actual "guild" or "industry group" usually is the first step to excess control over a product. Me personally, I love snakes and presume the same of my fellow herpers. But morphs entail a lot of money, and as such, (and believe me, the first few steps into a genetic project are incredibly tightly controlled) are a commodity subject to the worst temptations. Beyond the aforementioned feasibility (funding, etc.) there would be serious issues with such a decentralized power-structure subject to the whims of a relative few. It would be great if a pastel was always a pastel, and there may be some way to ensure that, but I'm not sure vetting by the "big breeders" is the way to go.

--No offense to anyone- I respect the work of many of the established names in this hobby, I just am inherently skeptical of certain business arrangements.