Culling Healthy Animals

[MikeCurtin]

I'll try to be breif here, but there are a few points I'd like to make.

This whole euthanasia to spare suffering or low quality of life concept is not new. It was quite prevalent in both Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia. Of course there is a difference, but that difference is only on scale.

This discussion started, Shawn, as one based upon purity, morphs, and the market. Now you are trying to compare these animals to ones intentionally bred for food. Never mind the fact that you have no shortage of food for the animals they feed, nor do you have any animals that require snakes as food. It seems to me that you feed these to your other animals because it eases your conscience more than if you just killed them outright.

As far as price/beauty is concerned, I paid $1200 on a female Leary Jag a few years ago. Upon receipt, the animal was malnourished, dehydrated, and mite infested. This was an 18 month old animal that undoubtedly cost more originally than what I paid for it. There goes that whole value=care theory.

Last season, you produced at least one clutch of very nice Jungle Jag mutts, didn't you? What happened to all the normal siblings? Were they spared a miserable existence, or did you send them off to lives of ultimate suffering? Why in the world would someone so concerned about the lives of "low value" animals put two animals together to produce low value animals? That doesn't make sense.

I recently sent an UGLY "mutt" American ratsnake integrade to a woman in Texas. It cost me more to send her this gift than what I made on the actual sale animal I shipped it with. My reward was a heart-warming video of these animals on the news as part of an educational program. Well cared for, loved, and appreciated.

Why on earth would you close the thread on your own website about this topic only to open one here? Again, it doesn't make sense, and in my opinion, it's borderline schizophrenic. Perhaps in the future you can do us all a favor and preface an argument such as this with the disclaimer that you do not represent the vast majority of the carpet python community, but you are rather an exception to the rule...and a rather disheartening one at that.

Mike Curtin