This may sound crass but I don't care one whit if something's 10x great grandparents were smuggled. Look at any Australian species; I'm reasonably certain most of those that are available derive from questionable to outright illegal founder animals (since captive breeding was in its infancy when Oz banned exports). Yet I feel 0 guilt about buying a Children's python or a yellow ackie or any other Australian species that's been captive bred for generation upon generation. At this point, it's not helping poachers. They're multiple removes and it isn't like they collect royalties on captive produced stock. So, I wont' buy from poachers. If I know someone deals with poachers, I won't deal with them. But just because someone once bought some stock from a person who bought them from a person who got founders from a poacher? At that point I don't care, no.

I'm unaware of any snakes being extirpiated by the pet trade. I know rattlesnake roundups have damaged (in some cases severely) rattlesnake populations in some states, but that's a much larger number of animals taken, over a very long period of time--some of these have been going on for 60 years, taking thousands to tens of thousands every year over that time. I don't know of any American snakes being collected in those sorts of numbers for the pet trade. I know (for some reason) WC corns still find their way on to price list but it isn't exactly in major quantities. Same with king snakes. I guess yellow rat snakes are still collected substantially for some reason? I seem to see those more often...

FWIW, I have a hate/hate relationship with Fish and Game type departments. When I was growing up in Colorado it was illegal to collect or keep native herps--garters, corns, etc.--unless they were albino. Yet I saw prime habitat get bulldozed time and time again. It wouldn't have mattered one damn bit if someone had gone in and cleared that 500 acre patch of forest out of fence lizards and wandering garters because it became a suburb. It got bulldozed, the trees and rock piles were destroyed and a crapton of cookie cutter McMansions went up. I saw this dozens of times and it left me with a (probably permanent) distaste for CDOW's "conservation" ethos.

Here in Texas, it's illegal to road cruise or to collect on public land--but you can certainly run over any random snake, you can kill them wantonly on public lands. But I can't take one home? Hell, I'm afraid to tong a rattler to move it to the other side of the road in places. As a hobbyist and a snake lover that makes me very bitter. I can't keep the animals I love because we have to conserve them but it's OK to destroy their habitat or kill them out of hand?
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

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