Catch 22 rant

Jimturner

Established Member
I have been keeping herps for 20 plus years... During this time I have been on all sides of the fence. I started out with a WC cuban anole in a fish bowl… OUCH!! I made all of the "newbie" mistakes. This was a steep learning curve but I read everything I could find and improved my husbandry skills.
Eventually I acquired a WC sambava male. I thought it was AWSOME! Soon I was breeding a couple of locals and veilds too. I took the whole thing to the max and quickly crashed. I had ethical difficulties dealing with the commercial aspect of moving all the offspring. Novice keepers and pet stores were killing the babies at an astounding rate! I quit.
Years later here I am. I have a back room full of chams and I'm thinking of breeding. Again.
Here lies the problem... I am pretty self contained, I breed a lot of my feeders and buy in bulk my others. I don't "like" pet stores. When I do go to buy bulbs and supplies I always see sad little creatures subjected to sub-par husbandry. This is the issue I have… These WC animals should Not be for sale to the public! I think it is unethical to rip these unsuspecting little souls from their perfect homes for our amusement and profit. Sell a few to advanced hobbyists? Sure. Justify it by "expanding the captive gene pool"? Yea… all right. But these forums are full of "newbies" that impulse buy WC animals that they really shouldn't even have access to!
My point is that without WC we wouldn't have any CB but as a whole we should strive to eliminate WC from pet stores. They sould stick to the common "easy" CB's and keep the WC's out of the hands of the public. There... I feel better. Cheers!
 
I completely agree. Once you've got a particular species of chameleon breeding in captivity, there is really no reason to capture any more of that species in the wild, unless they are invasive in a particular area. Best to leave natural ecosystems be.
 
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