reverendsterlin
10-30-03, 12:15 PM
Reading the newest pet peeve thread about folks wanting animals at unreasonable prices brought up something I saw recently. I have participated in many "what is this locale?" threads, it is always fun to see what reasonable or outlandish responses will turn up. I'll even say that sometimes a guess may be right. However, everytime I or someone else will state that despite any other belief, unless you can actually trace lineage or collected the animal yourself the animal CANNOT be represented as a locale specific animal. Locale specific breeders are fanatical about lineage records and you wind up paying for that extra care and guarantee of genetics if you purchase one of their animals. Where reputation is becoming a bigger factor among reptle breeders, locale specific breeders are held to even higher standards and a single purposely mis-represented animal could ruin a person's business reputation permanantely. Now recently one of these threads came up and one of the responders posted a pic that I will admit looked very much like the animal in question, the owners had no lineage records and the point on claims without records stated above was made. Despite that the owners who I respected and believed had integrity changed their signature line to state that they indeed were owners of what would be considered a more desirable locale specific animal.
If you choose to join into the rewarding sub-hobby of keeping and/or breeding locale specific animals always expect and demand lineage records. Be willing to take the effort to back check through other owners and breeders in the lineage is someone that isn't "known" in that aspect of the business as well as willing to pay that extra for peace of mind. In most cases what someone wants to represent/mis-represent their animals as makes little difference, just remember that while no one may say anything those that do notice remember and the loss of trust will get passed on by word of mouth among those that care. As always buyer beware, but especially in the locale specific portion of the hobby, after all no since paying top dollar for a mutt.
If you choose to join into the rewarding sub-hobby of keeping and/or breeding locale specific animals always expect and demand lineage records. Be willing to take the effort to back check through other owners and breeders in the lineage is someone that isn't "known" in that aspect of the business as well as willing to pay that extra for peace of mind. In most cases what someone wants to represent/mis-represent their animals as makes little difference, just remember that while no one may say anything those that do notice remember and the loss of trust will get passed on by word of mouth among those that care. As always buyer beware, but especially in the locale specific portion of the hobby, after all no since paying top dollar for a mutt.