Yea, its really a shame. You can buy any species or subspecies of king snake now and almost be assured your buying some sort of mixed mutt that is essentially worthless - like the $2.00 guppy in the pet store.

Of course the guy(s) who crossed all these species in order to get a few "pretty" snakes that gullible people would snap up made a few bucks. They just have to live wight he knowledge that they screwed up one very cool thing - American king snakes.

But they are not the kind of people who care about these things.