Does anyone like snakes? I've suddenly felt so sorry for these pythons in a pet store.

[WaterFowl209]

There's a pet store in the next town from us, about 15 minutes away (by car), while exploring the store I couldn't help but stare at the pythons and the lizards. The owner of the shop has one big ole burmese python.. The fella has no room He's just curled up in his glass tank. The other pythons (or boas I'm not sure which one) are way smaller but I feel they also have no room. He only has two lizards, a bearded dragon and something with a blue tongue. He also has a tarantula, little finches, some exotic looking fish, and a turtle in his shop.
I don't really like snakes that much but I feel like the huge python should have the habitat he deserves.. I don't think anyone will buy a big boy (I'm just assuming it's a boy) like him especially considering the town and the townspeople. I think younger people would buy the smaller ones but that giant python might end up staying in that glass tank for awhile. He literally has no room, he's just curled up in there. My mom ordered poultry feed from the pet store and we're supposed to get 50 bags delivered to our house by Friday. We're having the store owner kill our meat birds and with payment we're giving him two chickens and the chicken heads so he can feed the heads to his snakes.. I really want someone to give the python an appropriate home! I really feel that animals shouldn't be taken from their natural country and put into another country to be sold as pets, especially when no one is going to give that marvelous animal an appropriate forever home. Would I take it in? Nope, but I sure as heck would find a wildlife sanctuary in CA to take him in, if I had him in my possession.
Now the store owner is nice guy who is rather knowledgeable about his snakes and I don't think he would just give up his burmese python to a sanctuary without payment. Does anyone know of any organization in CA that would take in the python and pay the store owner too? I really wanna help the snake.

Well I know there's a central valley herp club in California that has meetings and trade and sell to each other perhaps you can email them about it if your concerned, most likely the snake is female and probably will be sold for someone to use as a breeder.

 

[Bunnylady]

Quote:

Quote:

Are you heading off on a different tangent here, or do I take that it you are assuming that these snakes are wild-caught? Because my bet is that they are captive-bred. Most breeders keep their snakes in the equivalent of large tanks, not "habitats" too. Not saying that it's "right" to do it, just that that is the reality of the life of most captive snakes.

Quote: In my state, this whole scenario is illegal. The only people who legally can have a native "wild" animal in their possession are those with special licenses, like wildlife rehabilitators, zoos, and a very few people who practice falconry. The goal of the wildlife rehabilitator is to release the animal back into the wild, so they try to keep them from getting imprinted as much as possible. Some, of course, are too badly injured or whatever to ever be released, but those are looked on as regrettable failures.

 

[Moochie]

Are you heading off on a different tangent here, or do I take that it you are assuming that these snakes are wild-caught? Because my bet is that they are captive-bred. Most breeders keep their snakes in the equivalent of large tanks, not "habitats" too. Not saying that it's "right" to do it, just that that is the reality of the life of most captive snakes.

In my state, this whole scenario is illegal. The only people who legally can have a native "wild" animal in their possession are those with special licenses, like wildlife rehabilitators, zoos, and a very few people who practice falconry. The goal of the wildlife rehabilitator is to release the animal back into the wild, so they try to keep them from getting imprinted as much as possible. Some, of course, are too badly injured or whatever to ever be released, but those are looked on as regrettable failures.

I was talking about any "exotic" pet. The snakes were probably captive bred but not with the store owner, he gets the animals from a supplier in Ventura.

The Ridimans live in Kentucky so I don't know what the laws are there. Tabby has also had pet ferrets and foster homed a squirrel. She used to live on a farm with her family and they have a whole bunch of animals. Chickens, horses, guineas, ducks, pigs, 7 dogs, I remember seeing a video with her and a peahen, goats, and a ferret. I think they have rabbits too. You can see when it was a baby raccoon here, she is bottle feeding it with goat's milk I think

 

[Fawkes]

Well it's his choice. I know it's not natural since rabbits aren't a staple food source in Southeast Asia but it's his choice as to what he does with his pets. I've seen videos of people feeding their pythons live geese which I think is totally unnecessary but it's up to them. It sucks but I can't do anything about it. He gets the rabbits from someone at a ranch who will give him the culls for cheap, the rancher breeds netherland dwarf bunnies or something like that.

There's nothing wrong with keeping exotics as long as the buyer knows what he/she is getting into.. Which in most cases they don't. It's why I'm not comfortable with exotics as pets, most people buy pythons to show off and when it gets too big for them to handle they release them like in the everglades in Florida. Some people like animals that require attention like dogs.. I like chickens because they don't attention 24/7 like a baby and if I keep them in my lap they don't bug me. Anyways, to me any animal forced from their home and put into the illegal pet trade isn't okay with me. Anyone can have a "pet" anything but for those that can't take care of them properly then they shouldn't have them at all.
I can totally understand someone keeping a raccoon, deer, or a fox that was rescued as a baby or from a fur farm but taking monkeys and lorises from their natural habitats for money isn't right to me. Alot of exotic pets are cute though, fennec foxes are legal in some states and I will be honest they are very cute. A girl in Kentucky keeps a raccoon named Ruby and Ruby was rescued as a baby, because Ruby was raised in captivity she wouldn't do well if she was released back into the wild so Tabby (the girl) has her stay at her mom's farm. I'm not sure if Mrs. Ridiman considers her a pet though. Everyone has their own definition of exotic, Petsmart called my chickens exotic

It's true that some people don't research before getting exotics and don't know what they're getting into (the same can be said for dogs, cats, chickens - basically anything) but I imagine the vast majority of exotic owners are great. I hang out on exotic forums and they're some of the most dedicated pet owners i've ever seen. I plan on getting many, many exotics in the future and have already done extensive research on hundreds of species of animals even though it'll be years before I can own most.

With the pythons in the Everglades, it's actually been found out that they escaped from a research facility when Hurricane Andrew destroyed the facility. They were wild caught snakes, because of the research that the facility was doing they needed to be wild caught, and that's why some of them were able to survive in the wild. Captive bred ones are said to not be able to survive, or at least have a very, very slim chance. Much slimmer than wild caught ones. http://www.raskbb.com/sybilsden/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=6521&hilit=python+florida
http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/snakes/881560-more-american-snake-slaughter-4.html