I'm with you, Tricia (on culling animals)...

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Posted by Gerry Binczik on August 12, 2002 at 10:43:47:

In Reply to: Some more thoughts on breeding from bug-eyed stock posted by patricia sherman on August 12, 2002 at 02:04:22:

When an undesirable heritable trait appears in a captive animal population, the best course of action is to ruthlessly test for it and cull those carrying the trait from the breeding population. And the sooner begun the better for all concerned.

In the case of bug-eyed leucistic TX ratsnakes, assuming everyone does indeed feel it is undesirable (is that a safe assumption? I have no idea), test crossing potential carriers to animals displaying the trait - which I would think one could readily borrow, or at least buy cheaply - would be most expedient, and ALL of the offspring should be adopted out as non-breeding pets or humanely dispatched. Likewise the animal being tested if it turns out to indeed be a carrier. A lot of surplus animals are going to be produced if this trait is already widespread, so I really think the best solution for protecting the genetic integrity of the population as well as the future commercial market would be to euthanize the affected animals (including proven carriers) rather than adopting them out.

I'm not a commercial snake breeder, but I've gotten to know a few and to know of many more via these forums as well as herp shows. Two things have really begun to bother me:

1) The tremendous overproduction which seems to be occurring. Seems almost everyone wants to breed snakes in order to make money, and the more the better. Most of those sold are being bought with that goal, so I can only see this getting worse until the bubble inevitably bursts. (But this is worthy of its own thread...)

2) Hand-in-hand with the above, I've never heard of anyone actually culling snakes from a breeding population, for ANY cause (though this may just be a function of the species I'm familiar with, or of folks' unwillingness to openly discuss it). Simply selling one's rejects to someone else is NOT the same as culling them, especially when one has a pretty good idea that other person is going to breed them. "What goes around, comes around", as they say.

I know that many people find the idea of euthanizing surplus/genetically unfit animals repugnant or impossible. But I submit it is a part of the job for ANY responsible commercial animal breeder, be s/he producing snakes or cows or... If one can't live up to that responsibility, one should seek another profession.

Sorry to put things so bluntly. It's not my intention to upset or offend anyone. But I worry about the future of this hobby sometimes, and I decided that if I was going to write on this subject at all then I wanted to try to get through to people, some of whom I fear have their heads buried rather deeply in the aspen chips.

Gerry
gbin@zoo.ufl.edu

Follow Ups:

Some comments ... patricia sherman 08/12/02 (1)
- Likewise (more on culling)... Gerry Binczik 08/13/02 (0)