On the Subject of Wild Collecting

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Posted by Chance on May 10, 2002 at 19:27:34:

In Reply to: selling cottonmouths posted by Gigi on May 10, 2002 at 02:02:15:

After reading many of these posts, there is something I'd like to address and ask about. Many of you all on here are against wild collection of herps. I can see the point in this, and I too am against it to a certain degree. However, what would happen if ALL wild collection of all herps, not just venomous snakes, much less all other animals were just totally stopped. The gene pools of captive individuals would very quickly become shallow, and many things would begin to happen. Sure, we might see more color variations rise, and that might be a good thing. However, after enough generations of inbreeding, there might be two-headed, two-tailed, headless, or any of a number of mutated offspring born.

So all that being that, shouldn't there be some comfortable medium we should come to? Many of you that are on here speaking out against wild collection, I'm guessing have herps of your own. Well, I'll tell you this for a fact, those herps parents' parents' etc had to come from somewhere. And without wild collection, the herp business and herp hobby would be completely nonextistent. These snakes and lizards and such don't just suddenly appear in captivity as captive born individuals.

So as a small disclaimer here...I'm totally against raping the countryside of all the snakes and lizards to be found. I hate the idea of rattle snake roundups, and the idea that certain individuals can sit back and make a fortune at the import of thousands upon thousands of wild caught individuals each year. However, wild collecting HAS to happen to a certain degree, or else no one would have any herps.

If anyone else has any thoughts on this I would love to hear them. This is kind of a rock and a hard place situation. We don't want to erradicate all the wild herps of course, but we want to continue our hobby and enjoy our interaction with our herps. Anyone have any ideas on how to arrive to a happy medium? Obviously limits, which already exist, don't work well.

Follow Ups:

Collecting wild snakes verses EXPLOITATION. Jaffo 05/12/02 (5)
- Re: Collecting wild snakes verses EXPLOITATION. Tom Townsend 05/12/02 (3)
  - Fair enough... Jaffo 05/13/02 (2)
    - Re: Fair enough... Tom Townsend 05/13/02 (1)
      - The market. Jaffo 05/13/02 (0)
- Well said! n/p KevinS 05/12/02 (0)
There is a huge difference.... T.W. Wilmot 05/10/02 (0)
Re: On the Subject of Wild Collecting Gigi 05/10/02 (6)
- Overabundance?......PLEASE! T.W.Wilmot 05/10/02 (5)
  - I don't read the boards much anymore, but I have a question Tom Townsend 01/11/02 (4)
    - You seem to forget... Jaffo 05/13/02 (3)
      - Ignore the previous..... this is the correct response, thanks. Tom Townsend 05/13/02 (1)
        
        Excellent Jaffo 05/13/02 (0)
      - Re: You seem to forget... Tom Townsend 05/13/02 (0)
Re: On the Subject of Wild Collecting Norman 05/10/02 (0)

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: After reading many of these posts, there is something I'd like to address and ask about. Many of you all on here are against wild collection of herps. I can see the point in this, and I too am against it to a certain degree. However, what would happen if ALL wild collection of all herps, not just venomous snakes, much less all other animals were just totally stopped. The gene pools of captive individuals would very quickly become shallow, and many things would begin to happen. Sure, we might see more color variations rise, and that might be a good thing. However, after enough generations of inbreeding, there might be two-headed, two-tailed, headless, or any of a number of mutated offspring born. : So all that being that, shouldn't there be some comfortable medium we should come to? Many of you that are on here speaking out against wild collection, I'm guessing have herps of your own. Well, I'll tell you this for a fact, those herps parents' parents' etc had to come from somewhere. And without wild collection, the herp business and herp hobby would be completely nonextistent. These snakes and lizards and such don't just suddenly appear in captivity as captive born individuals. : So as a small disclaimer here...I'm totally against raping the countryside of all the snakes and lizards to be found. I hate the idea of rattle snake roundups, and the idea that certain individuals can sit back and make a fortune at the import of thousands upon thousands of wild caught individuals each year. However, wild collecting HAS to happen to a certain degree, or else no one would have any herps. : If anyone else has any thoughts on this I would love to hear them. This is kind of a rock and a hard place situation. We don't want to erradicate all the wild herps of course, but we want to continue our hobby and enjoy our interaction with our herps. Anyone have any ideas on how to arrive to a happy medium? Obviously limits, which already exist, don't work well.

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