THE TRUTH OF THIS INDUSTRTY!

Being in this industry alls I can say is, I've never seen a more cut throat and virtually heartless industry in my life. I'm definitely not bashing reptiles but seriously there are so few reputable breeders who care about the animals and the business itself. Especially around my area. Most breeders rather bash you, put your business down and hope for selfish gain then anything. I've only met a handful of breeders who love their animals, who won't dismiss an animal because its worth less than a thousand bucks. We wonder why this industry gets attacked but then we need to look around. 99.9% of reptile breeders are self righteous a**holes who don't give a damn about their customers or animals. If we want this industry tolast we need more responsible and caring businessmen. Let of be known I'm not naming anyone but I see it day in and day out. Breeders posting disturbing images of mutilated snakes on Facebook because someone is looking for a "cheap" snake. Calling live animals "junk" and not worth their time and people selling them are idiots. As a breeder myself I've had local breeders tell people I f*ck snakes, tell me to kill myself and more. We really live in a world where people who deal in "pets" are flat out psychotic. Again I'm certainly not anti exotic animals but I am an animal activist and I certainly think we should be human and not bully our competition. I already know I'm going to get hate for this post. Just like every time you publicly say you have exotic animals! I'm sure their will be people saying I probably deserve it or its because unlike their animals mine are crap. Trust me I'm used to it.
I just wanted to say some stuff that I've seen! Hoping one day we will be in an industry that stops acting like we are the underground criminal industry PETA says we are.
Thanks for reading!

Welcome to planet Earth.

Honestly, I've been involved in a lot of different interests over the years, and I would be hard pressed to come up with ANY industry that is any better. This particular industry is not unique concerning scammers and people out to just take advantage of others whenever and however they can. It is apparently just a trait of humanity in general, imho. You just have to assume you are dealing with someone who is solely motivated by self interest, possibly even dishonest to the core, and make every effort you can to protect yourself. No matter what industry it is.

I'm in the same boat. Maybe its just my luck but I have several other hobbies and have never had as many problems with people in those dealings as I have in the reptile industry. I agree for the most part, I mean in general people suck, but I've never seen it so bad

While I think it is prudent to be careful and watch for scammers, to check the BOI, to be careful in your dealings and purchases, and behave for the worst while hoping for the best, I believe there are good folks in the industry and the hobby.
I guess because they are quiet and honest and just do their thing, they don't attract the same attention that the evil scammers seem to do.

I've seen right here on this board where a seller gifted a buyer who had been scammed with a whole group of baby bearded dragons. I've seen incredibly ethical owners put down their collection to keep from possibly contaminating others, when their critters came up sick with terrible disease.
And of course we see every day the many who give of their own time and knowledge to try to catch and corral the bad guys on the BOI.

All of those people are as much a part of the industry as the bad guys, and I think the good guys deserved to be recognized and thanked for who they are and what they do.

Couldn't agree more I'm just annoyed with outright crap that some people resort too.

Originally Posted by hissnthatexotics

Couldn't agree more I'm just annoyed with outright crap that some people resort too.

This is why the reputable ones are harder to find. We know to keep our heads down.

I'd love to be able to utilize Facebook, but most postings I see turn into a nightmare rather quickly. at this point, it's not worth the headache for me and I simply sell at shows for (probably substantially) less than I would posting online. I have limited time, after a full-time job and caring for my animals, so I'm not going to spend it dealing with morons.

Like Rich said, every industry has it's scammers but I've met some great people in the reptile hobby. I would venture to guess that the percentage of scammers is much higher in the "Animal Rights Activists" crowd. PETA and HSUS are right at the top of the scammer list and I don't really care what their opinions of my hobbies are.

Originally Posted by hissnthatexotics

Again I'm certainly not anti exotic animals but I am an animal activist and I certainly think we should be human and not bully our competition.

If you own pets, you're not, by definition, an animal rights activist. Rather, you are a proponent of animal welfare. Animal rights activists wish to give animals the same rights as humans, and this includes removing pet ownership. Animal welfare means you care about the well-being of those animals, but understand that humans will continue to utilize animals for a variety of purposes.

That said, I too have been rather turned off by many breeders in the ball python business. I used to breed leopard geckos and never had such insults thrown at me as I do when I try to remain ethical, such as willingly keeping my production low, growing up my breeders from babies so I know their personalities and quirks, and trying to keep market prices decent by not selling to the lowest bidder.

There are many, many good people in the hobby though. Previous commenters are right though.... we tend to keep our heads down. I'm sorry you had a bad experience. Sometimes you have to work a little harder and pay a little more to do business with the right people, but it's worth it, in my opinion.

If you own pets, you're not, by definition, an animal rights activist. Rather, you are a proponent of animal welfare. Animal rights activists wish to give animals the same rights as humans, and this includes removing pet ownership.

Very well said.

I think the behavior that is being described is mostly contained to the ball python community and maybe that's why I haven't experienced it. There are a lot of people that truly love ball pythons but there are also a lot of people that treat them like the beanie babies of the reptile world. They invested thousands of dollars in morphs that now are worth a small fraction of what they invested. The market is over-saturated which causes cutthroat competition and disgruntled breeders who are tired of being low-balled. The good news is that when the prices drop low enough the "investors" will leave the community and the ball python enthusiasts will be the only ones left.

Of course, If it gets bad enough you can leave the dark side and join the colubrid community.

Haha, Chris, you read my mind. I just purchased a female splotched Sinaloan milk snake directly from Applegate. I've been wanting to get into colubrids for years, so I figured why not start with something small but gorgeous! Every five years I like to branch out to a new species, so this is a good first step. So far the colubrid folks are, for the most part, pretty awesome, although I hear the nicest community out there are the tortoise folks. I guess when it takes a decade for your babies to breed for the first time, you have to be patient and dedicated!