gtp laundering

[shaunyboy]

heres an article i found interesting

The Python Laundry | Conservation Magazine (http://www.conservationmagazine.org/2011/11/the-python-laundry/)

cheers shaun

[stephanbakir]

Sucks pretty hard. Same with ball pythons... SO many normals are produced yearly by breeders, and at the same time normal WC imports are higher then ever.

[Rogue628]

Sucks pretty hard. Same with ball pythons... SO many normals are produced yearly by breeders, and at the same time normal WC imports are higher then ever.


Wait...why are we still importing nromal WC? And why are they more expensive? Back when I got my first bp, WC were about the same or a little cheaper than CB. WC were easier to find than CB too. But it could have been the area I lived in (Dallas/Fort Worth). Most of the rescues I had were these WC bp's. Most were in horrible living conditions with open sores, mouth and/or scale rot. Always mites. OMG at the mites. Poor things were so scared :( Whenever I had a few extra $$$ I'd go look for the worst one(s) I could find, take them home, and, for the most part, turn them into healthy nice pets. Then I'd find them forever homes.

[youngster]

He wasn't saying the cost of a WC he was saying the number imported.

[alessia55]

That was a good eye-opening article. Thanks for sharing that

[stephanbakir]

He wasn't saying the cost of a WC he was saying the number imported.
This, the same is true for loads of animals.
Did you know, the CBB cost of an asian water monitor is 250$, the WHOLESALE cost of a WC one is about 8$, and the retail of a WC asian is just over 35$
Wholesale WC BPs go for about 6$ each.
Its cheaper for them to buy a crate full of infested WC animals then but them in numbers of 10-100 from the breeders for 4-5 times that. That doesn't make it right but its their reason.
I've got a friend who took me to an "auction" of WC reptiles about 30% of what came off the crate was already dead, people fought over the rest.

[Jenn_06]

they still being in WC for new blood, and you never know what new morphs are in the WCs not saying its all ok but if they did it the right way we would not see so many die before they get here.

[candyraver69]

How sad. I think its terrible that careless pet owners will buy WC without thinking at all about the repercussions. What they are effectively doing is ruining it for future reptile owners. If we import WC's by the truckload eventually laws will go up to prevent getting WC at all of that species, and we will be stuck in situations where breeders can't get new blood when something cool does pop up.

Why anyone would want a WC as a pet is beyond me...

Now this article is basically making me feel like I can't even trust buying a CBB that it is even CBB. There's always been doubt from no-name sellers in my mind, but I never thought a breeder would skew records to sell WC :(

[stephanbakir]

How sad. I think its terrible that careless pet owners will buy WC without thinking at all about the repercussions. What they are effectively doing is ruining it for future reptile owners. If we import WC's by the truckload eventually laws will go up to prevent getting WC at all of that species, and we will be stuck in situations where breeders can't get new blood when something cool does pop up.

Why anyone would want a WC as a pet is beyond me...

Now this article is basically making me feel like I can't even trust buying a CBB that it is even CBB. There's always been doubt from no-name sellers in my mind, but I never thought a breeder would skew records to sell WC :(

In a perfect world, where laws were enforced that might be true... but look at my alltime favourite varanid... the lace monitor... Australia does not allow any imports and exports of animal, native or otherwise.
All the the animals you see in the pet trade that are native to Australia should have been exported before the laws came into effect, but the lace monitor wasn't.
You can find them these days, WC and CBB for about 15,000 and 25,000 respectively.