Originally Posted by kepster57

Having worked at a shop that specializes in herps for over a year, and being at/working at many shows I have had a good deal of real life exposure to the problems with ball pythons. My main worry is neglect. Now people who will neglect an animal will do it no matter what, but ball pythons are these beautiful, well tempered, low priced, decent sized snakes that people buy just for the hell of it. They are sort of like anoles, in that at most pet stores the "bad crowd" is attracted to these inexpensive animals which are thoroughly starved, torn up from leaving live feeders in cages, and just generally messed up and then they get dumped off on pet stores and rescues who didn't sell these assholes an animal in the first place. So whether that is more of a rant against people who sell animals just looking to make a buck, or towards an animal that cant help how cool it is, I don't know. But i would have to say that ball pythons have had a negative impact on the herp community.