Quote Originally Posted by stevepoppers View Post
Heavy thread...

We can't stop idiots who won't take care of their pet.
We can't stop normals being available aside from legally licensing who can sell them (possible good idea, but would disenfranchise many such as myself). Importers and other people will still do what you don't want them to do. A ban would only fuel a black market as it does with everything.
I was shocked by the very idea of stopping breeding normals just because idiots don't take care of them. Make it a normal or anything else, if they'll treat any living creature like that, you can bet they'll do the same to another. Remember, most people hate these animals. True, spiteful, horrible hate.
Normals (and any other morph) should be bred for desirable qualities as well as appearance.

I don't know. This is like the people who kill cats and dogs because they think there're too many of them. There are too many people. Shall we start killing them? Their overpopulation issue threatens us in a far greater way. Or just spay and neuter? Or just leave it to nature to sort out? Again, it could be solved if people in general were less idiotic.

I guess I should ask, "Why NOT breed normals?" Aside from just not wanting to produce them, why shouldn't they be bred in general?

OP, you've picked up on a lot of problems with the bp industry, the pet industry, education, and humanity in general. But, normal ball pythons are NOT the cause for these problems, and their absence would not be the solution. These problems all have their own complicated roots and various possible solutions, which are all outside the scope of this thread, this forum, this community, this industry, and any group that isn't the majority of a majority of the countries of the world.

Don't make normal ball pythons a poor scapegoat for what's wrong with humanity. Please.
Sorry to be harsh but I think you are missing the point. As humans we can't save the world from all the bad things. You are 100% right about that. What we can do is try and cause the least harm. If you are going to breed Ball Pythons you are going to produce normals. A pastel bread to a pastel will produce 25% normals for instance. When you go to sell those normals you have to compete with wild caught or captive hatched normals that are legally brought into the country. This forces you to sell the normals at a very low price. The low price makes them easier to buy on a whim. When people buy pets on a whim they often later regret that decision and put them on craigslist or worse let the go into the wild. These types of actions give the rest of us a bad name. If you, as a BP lover say, "I will never breed a normal to a normal," (not talking about dinker projects of course) then you are making a commitment to not making the problems we face worse. Again its not about making a commitment to not produce normals. Its about not pairing animals that will ONLY produce normals. Or at least thats one side of the argument. Its just simple math that ON AVERAGE, animals that cost more are better cared for. This is because most people will think harder before buying and when someone does go out and buy an expensive animal that they later regret, there are many people waiting in line to take over that responsibility. To put it simply. How many times do we see normal BP on craigslist for a 100 dollar rehoming fee. Most of us don't give too much thought to saving these BP's. Those same people might jump to adopt a super pastel BP with a 100 dollar rehoming fee.