Quote Originally Posted by omnibus2 View Post
Guys, first of let me say I personally dont think there is any way I would be able to kill any snake of mine, especially one that I had bred and raised.

But depending on the type of mutation...culls need to be done. If we don't cull, the snake hobby will end up just like dogs, thousands of unhealthy animals, predispositioned to things like disease or organ malfunction. Just look at dogs. Not only are there tons of unwanted mutts that are too large in number to all get a nice home, but even all the normal, pure breeds of dogs come with lots of health risks and genetic deformities. It may take 10 years or 50 years or 200 years, but lets not let that happen.
At the very least, don't breed them.
I'm not breeding Quetzal (most likely), but I just wanted to point out that in the dog world, the purebreds with health issues are dogs that were not bred by reputable breeders. Those with genetic health issues, bad temperaments, and don't fit standard in terms of color or structure are "humanely culled" by speutering. Unfortanately you can't neuter a snake or garentee that the new owner will never breed the snake, and snakes themselves don't have such strict standards on what is considered good breeding stock. So either snake owners crack down and do some strict self regulating and adopt all the lovely (ick) politics of the dog breeding world or it'll all remain up to a person's personal judgement.