Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A few posts below Brian brought up an interesting topic about sterilization in some of the bigger breeds of snakes,and to me at least its a good idea.Anyway on with the points.One very valid point is the fact that rescues as well as zoos,humane societies,etc are getting overrun by giant snakes,reason being too many being produced.Now if you was to take individual snakes of both genders and sterilize them and let the buyer aware of this then the chances of these rescues and other helpers of these majestic giants wouldnt have to be worrying about the next giant awaiting its turn of events.

Another point to ponder is breeding them in the first place.Now i can understand the idea behind trying to get a new morph or being able to produce your first babies but think about trying it with something a weee bit smaller like a boa.If you truly want to breed them,then do it responsibly via one burm and not 3 that way you only have to deal with 30-40 instead of 100-250.See the point if you breed smaller numbers then you dont have to worry about every single person on the globe wanting/having a giant snake that more than likely (not always since there are some that care greatly for them)will wind up in some form or fashion of a rescue.

Now about big breeders versus small breeders.Like someone on one of the forums pointed out is the fact that the bigger breeders have to be more responsible to a point because of their reputation.This isnt always a fact.Some do find shortcuts to deal with their otherwise reputation destroying problem.Others just dont deal with it at all because lets face it not everyone they deal with gets burned.While you still have others that go out of their way to make sure you are happy with the whole ordeal.Small time breeders are trying to make a name for themselves,not always but the majority are.They can go either way as far as dealings go.For one since they are small timers then most of the people that are their customers anyway are new buyers who probably havent heard of them and want to give them a try to see how the transaction goes (this is fact it does happen more than you think).If they get burnt then they tell a few of their friends and if their friends tell their friends then heresay works wonders if not then on with another transaction.Another thing about small timers is the fact that if they use say kingsnake for their transactions or another classifieds place then they can go as far as changing their screen name so no one knows any better and again strikes a newbie at buying snakes.Big breeders basically are small timers just with many years experience with alot of time and effort under their belts so they cant afford to make mistakes whereas the small timers have that luxury. Regards Bill McLeod

Something I'd like to point out...

Even if people do start sterilizing burms... They will STILL continue to be imported from the wild/farms. So really... which is the lesser of the two evils? Letting WC burms continue to come in but all CB stop... or continue to breed CB burms and help puta stop to the importation of burms?

And some people simply DO NOT CARE about about the overpopulation. If they can make a quick buck, they will hunt out a fertile pair of snakes and continue to mass produce them.

Anyways...
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Randilyn -;,-
Desolate Gray: Reptiles

The original point i was making wasnt to stop c/b breeding altogether but to slow it down to a bare minimum.These snakes have it hard enough without us overpopulating to the point of killing them.There are many people that take great care of these animals but with that there are also probably more that dont.So if the population of these animals was controlled to an extent then half the varying problem with rescues,societies,zoos,other caring people wouldnt have to happen.Its kinda like a kid being taken from one foster home and jossled to 3 or 4 different ones until some sort of seragate parents are found.Its bad enough with the human race do we have to make other species suffer as well?

As for importation,i say ban it completely unless there is some sort of new morph or if some big breeder needs new blood in their breeding stock (not a whole lot of new blood just a few).Bringing them into the country just to make a quick buck is just a pathetic excuse to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person doing so doesnt care for the animals in ?.Burms produce enough snakes in one litter to keep 30-50 people happy so imagine having 5 female burms that have that size clutch and all of them live.So again why do we NEED to import burms? Regards Bill McLeod

I hate to sound negative and I am certainly not attempting to start an argument here, but don't you realize that the human race actually makes EVERY single species "suffer" to some extent, sometimes to utter extinction, each and every day? Just by the way that we exist in present culture. The way we exist is by taking from all else beyond a point that we ever need to in order to survive. We reep, trash, use, murder, plunder and suck dry every natural resource and then move on leaving death and destruction in our path. Kind of a different aspect of the same subject,... but then,... not really. I don't think that the worst that we do as a species is produce a few thousand extra burmese that are neglected. As much as I care about this issue too, I can't help but acknowledge the other evil that we do daily.

>>Its bad enough with the human race do we have to make other species suffer as well?
>>
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It isn't "Ideas" that fail or succeed,... it is the "Sytstems" which are instilled to launch and sustain the idea that either fail or succeed.>[Me.]

And its a rational point from a rational point of view.We as the human species tend to think that just because something isnt there doesnt mean it doesnt exist,but you see thats where the rational thoughts go out the window and the irrational come into play.We tend to destroy first and then ask ?s like,well gee what happened to this species? or how can we possibly keep this from happening to another species?The simple truth is that the answer is right in front of the ones that ask these very ?s,Dont do the stuff that you know in the long run will hurt the species,ieont import for pure sport or just to make a quick buck,Quit overpopulating areas with people to begin with,quit destroying the very land thats supposed to help keep us here,and last but not least if you want to collect snakes then do it responsibly with just a few specimens and not a few hundred or thousand.I know that this scenario has been played out over and over but if people would just use that little thing in their skull called a brain(pun intended for some) then maybe just maybe the future generations can enjoy what mother nature ever so faithfully created for us to enjoy now,that is if we dont destroy it first. Regards Bill McLeod