Ball Pythons And Animal Welfare

[WastelandExotics]

I mean, this is just the equivalent of PETA here in the states, isn't it? From what I can tell from delving into an online search, the ECEAE is a private organization that focuses on animal welfare and basically makes it's own rules and guidelines for what they consider to be ethical or not ethical when dealing with animals. But with that in mind, they're just pushing their ideology and nothing more. It's like talking to vegans; some people are going to agree with them and some people aren't because we all have a different perspective on what is ethical and what isn't (ie. any discussion with a rat owner about how to properly house feeder rodents would give you a good example of what I'm talking about).

I guess it just comes down to perspective? From what I can tell, almost all of the bullet points are valid to a degree and need to be considered when thinking about owning a BP.

- BPs are sensitive to stress // yes, though they are hardy animals and good 'beginner snakes' as they aren't as sensitive as other species and allow for some hiccups here and there
- They eat meat (oh no!) "In the eyes of animal welfare this is a huge problem" // which leads me to my point about vegans that I mentioned earlier (no offense to any vegans that actually recognize carnivores as being part of the circle of life)
- Frozen animals could be used but need to be sourced correctly // I agree with this - do your research into your feeder suppliers and hold them accountable for treating their feeder stock right (clean bedding, food, water, etc)
- There are some BPs that only take prekilled or live // yeah, unfortunately, but are you going to starve it because you believe it's unethical to feed them what they're intended to eat? I don't see a lot of sympathy for these snakes in these kinds of arguments; they're living things that deserve a good quality of life too or just because they aren't traditionally cute, they deserve to starve to death?
- Not fair to feed live rodents to snakes in their enclosure // I personally don't like feeding live mostly because I like rats but also because I don't want the rat causing damage to my snake; if I can feed frozen, I'm going to feed frozen but again, if the snake will only take live or prekilled, then I'm not going to deprive them.
- Feeder housing is bad // there are plenty of facilities that breed feeder rodents ethically and humanly and plenty who don't - support the ones that you feel most comfortable with
- Heating is too hard to regulate and could cause burns // I swear, it's like these people are reaching for anything. Yes, exotics and reptiles especially require a bit more extra care and consideration when it comes to housing. It's not rocket science, just do your research and ask questions before getting a reptile
- To wrap up the last 3 'points', imported BPs don't eat, are riddled with parasites, blah blah blah // I don't know what it's like in Germany but I would find it extremely difficult to find an import for sale to the public in one of my local reptile shops, which make these last three points completely null and void and that IF you're talking about reptile shops - online sales to the public are generally always CB unless otherwise noted. There are so many captive bred babies available on the market that usually bulk import snakes are left for big breeders that want to gamble with the possibility of a completely new morph that no one has seen.

I just find it funny that all of these animal welfare groups claim to care about all animals but live in this weird fantasy land where no animal eats meat.



TL;DR It's just another hit piece with info skewed to an agenda.
/rant