Sorry to be repeating an old story again, but the Burmese Python became one of the "it" pets back in the mid-90's. I got mine after watching it grow from an 18-24 inch hatchling in the fall of '96 to about four feet in March of '97, when the pet store had lowered the price quite a bit. I subsequently, after much more research found out that basically many people had gone into the "pet" production business, just like puppy mills, who wear certain female dogs out to the point of death to crank out "pedigree" pups.
It's cruel and sickening, but once the animals are born, what are we to do? I know we're not supposed to buy dogs from pet stores, but what then? They may have problems, but they can still give and get love. Well, it seems that many people got into the Burmese Python business. A friend of mine, my computer guru, now an IT Director, met a woman many years ago when he was a computer trainer. This woman was a paralegal and did Burmese Python breeding whenever "she needed money." It seemed she could basically crank out 100 hatchlings and sell them to pet stores for $80 apiece with no problem.
Indeed, American record holder in the pole vault Jeff Hartwig, has a booming business with his wife, breeding and selling, . . .
reptiles.
How many people in the United States bought a Burmese Python, kept it well, and until it's death? Raise your hands, please. Probably about as many as the yuppies who bought pot bellied pigs in the 80's and then turned them loose on the highways of Lawn Guyland, weighing 180 pounds and creating a nuisance and eating them out of house and home.
I'm not taking the Hartwigs or anyone else to task really, but we Americans can really suck sometimes when we get interested in certain things. We want to possess it, make it all "our own," and bring it into the family. What's the next "it" pet, Hippos?
Hi, this is Harry, my pet Hippo. They say he'll get to 8,000 pounds eventually, and eat about 100 pounds of food a day, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
:duh: :duh: :duh:
