Scale-less BP photo!

[rlditmars]

I am just stating my opinion for the purpose of provoking thought. I do not wish to argue. I "feel" that selectively breeding for traits, or deformities, etc. that diminish the animal's natural abilities , i.e. heat sensory, locomotion, etc., is indulgent and gives little consideration to the welfare of the animal. Be it scaleless snakes, hairless cats, pug nosed dogs, these are all examples of human's folly to appease their own curiousity and/or desires, while leaving the animal diminished.

Those that will argue about naturally occurring morphs such as the scaleless head, pied, etc. need to consider that natural selection will opt to eliminate those mutations that do not promote the species' existance. This is why albinism is not found in huge numbers or whole populations. As the animal is much more easily seen, it makes it much more vulnerable to predation. Perhaps if it were to avoid predation long enough it would prove to be susceptible to irradtiation from the sun and succumb to cancer (speculating I know). Further, I "believe" the arguement of selectively breeding children without arms, while extreme, makes the point well. People would probably percieve it as cruel and irresponsible since the result would hinder the ability of the person to live normally as we know one should live. There would likely be extreme debates and protests over the issue, if not legislation in the end. This is no different. It is just a different species with no advocate.

The owner of this animal has chosen to promote a birth defect, not a characteristic. This is not an opinion, this is a fact. Snakes have scales as the emperical data will confirm. That is a characteristic of snakes. The defect is one that likely would not promote nor enhance the survival of the animal, if it were to exist in a natural environment and had to fend for itself. And while this might be an opinion, it is only so because there has been no study of scaleless snakes in the wild. You may want to ask yourself, "why that is"?

In my "opinion" a scaleless snake is not a positive for ball pythons. Just my 0.02