BIG can o worms!!! - Robert Bruce

Thanks that makes more sence. I like Robert and have we purchased 2.2 from him awhile back. He is knowledgable about eastern indigos but I would doubt he got any new wild caughts recently. I just hate to see people get burned by the feds for putting something in writting or a rumor that leads them to their door. They have the authority to take everything and you would have to come up with the paper work to get them back. The animals may be dead by then. I have seen it before.

Thanks for the clarification.
Bill Lamoreaux

What is the beef with this thread and Robert's snakes anyways. If the there is some inbreeding doesn't that take the supply off of the wild caught animals anyways?

Nothing, I have and like Robert's animals a lot. I don't have split scales on any of them?
You are right it does protect the wild population just as allowing the sale of captive born Gila monsters protects the wild ones. It gives collectors a way to have one without breaking the law. My thoughts were, since I had the European line it will be interesting to breed them into my US animals just on the chance it does introduce some unrelated genes. Of course no one will ever know if it does or does not. Robert's paper was well written and to the point. He is the expert on Eastern Indigos along with Alan Brutosky

Here are my questions, as an uninformed outsider to the breeding ritual...

1. Haven't we done enough already? We have removed the habitat in which the indigo flourishes and now some are going to in a sense 'play God' and decide how to genetically manipulate the surviving members of the species. And intentionally not manipulating is indeed a manipulation in itself.

2. How do the individual breeders know that the pairs they started with were unrelated when they were WC in the first place? I have seen indigos bought and sold without attribution or any DNA info so how does one know even now?

I don't know enough to form an opinion either way, but I do remember the margarine ad from the 70's that said,


Announcer: "Chiffon's so delicious, it fooled even you, Mother Nature"
Mother Nature: "Oh, it's not NICE to fool Mother Nature!!"

And that sums up how I feel about this.

[quote=Wilomn;417331]For the record, while I did bring up goosestepping, I in no way was referring to hitler.


I'm sorry, but that's like saying "I didn't mean THAT Lee Harvey Oswald!"

At my age, with my background, goose-stepping = Hitler.

[quote=landonsjohnson;1458022]

Originally Posted by Wilomn

For the record, while I did bring up goosestepping, I in no way was referring to hitler.


I'm sorry, but that's like saying "I didn't mean THAT Lee Harvey Oswald!"

At my age, with my background, goose-stepping = Hitler.

"We have removed the habitat in which the indigo flourishes..."
Now what did you go and do a foolish thing like that for?