Oh goody. Speculate all you like, it really does not bother me one bit.
You are doing a pretty good job of that yourself.
I'm all for responsible education. I'm not for permits, government control, and instilling fear of this animal. It's not a complex one to keep, it really isn't hard. Is it a walk in the park like a ball python is (that any 6+ year old can keep) no, but is the care hard? No. Is the handing of a superdwarf/dwarf up to around 6-8 foot difficult? No. Most people have been around a boa, and can understand that it's not very difficult to handle an adult (some exceptions for a few monster boas I've seen.).
Because all the retics available for sale are super dwarfs! Totally see how this fixes everything! Oh...wait.... only a very small percentage of animals for sale are super dwarfs. So yeah, not buying into that argument. Most of what's out there are the ones that get well over 10 to 15 ft or more.
As for me trying to erase fear to get sales- I don't even have hatchlings available (early June though!). Even so, that is far from the truth. I spent considerable amounts of time on each customer at the last expo I vended. I sat with one guy over an hour asking questions back and forth before he ended up settling on a 50% dwarf male. I sold a 10 foot female a few weeks back, and I declined the first 8 people with cash in hand and took a price 1/4 what they offered- because she went with someone who had cared for several 15'+ animals and wanted his own retic, he knew what he was doing.
This hero has refused sales! All vendors must be like this!
Buddy, I have refused corn snakes sales because I thought the people were incompetent. It's what responsible breeders SHOULD DO WITH EVERY SPECIES, not just big ones. It's called ethics, and EVERY breeder/seller should practice it.
But all retic breeders are ethical according you! No one would ever sell to stupid kids or people who don't know how to care for them properly!
Well explain this; 2 years ago at a show a vendor sold a 7ft retic to a 19 year boy three tables down from me. The vendor told the boy the snake was super chill and like a puppy and he should just carry around. So the boy drapes the snake, which he has never personally worked with before and only took the vendor's word, around his shoulders. The boy walks down a few tables and while I'm working with a customer the retic decides it's had enough of this crap, lunges and bites me. A bite and release to my side, then a bite to the back of my head. I was a bloody mess by the time we got the snake off.
So who is at fault here?
The vendor who told the boy the snake was fine and he should go ahead and engage in unsafe behavior with potentially dangerous snake. He only asked the boy if he had a cage large enough, not once did he ask the boy if he knew anything about the care of these types of snake.
The 19 year old boy who took the vendor at his word, and engaged in unsafe behavior with a snake he had just purchased and had no first hand knowledge of it's personality.
Or me, for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time when the snake decided to go off.
Or how about this one:
Last weekend at a show, a young man was walking around with a retic on his shoulders. It bit a young boy in the face. So clearly he is a responsible owner? I think not.
Same show last weekend.
A vendor was talking to a man with a young son (7-8 years old), the man knew nothing about retics. The vendor spewed off the most cockamamie story about retic care I have ever heard. He told the man that the boy and snake would do great growing up together and that even at 12ft, the boy would be able to handle the animals by himself if they grew up together.
For every one vendor that grills customers and engages in ethical sales, there are MANY more who don't. The almighty dollar is more important than anything else.
The government telling me what I can and can not own, what I can and can not keep is one of the reasons this government will crumble in the next 20 years. Why make the dog breeds have a permit, when the problem isn't the breed, it's the stereotype owner with the animal handling knowledge of a grapefruit.
But it's the people that keep selling the "stereotype owner with the animal handling knowledge of a grapefruit" that are the problem here.
Should we just tell the State of Florida to do away with the conditional species permit because CMRetics says it's okay and that it's just the stereotype owner with the animal handling knowledge of a grapefruit that is the real problem?
I think not.
A permit system forces people to think before buying and it also weeds out the less than savory vendors selling to uneducated consumers.
NO ONE who is keeping their collection properly and safely should EVER fear a permit. Permit do not punish anyone who is doing things the right way.
Since you are so afraid of permits, that makes me wonder more about you.
So no, I'm not here to push sales, I'm here to let people know - big snakes are not as dangerous or scary as people make them out to be.
It sure sounds like you are just here to push sales.
Responsible and ethical breeders acknowledge the risk and potential hazards of these snakes. You seem to insist everyone that is smarter than a grapefruit should be able to own on, I think not.
It takes knowledge and skill to manage these animals properly, if you can do it, GREAT! Good for you! The vast majority of the public can not, and should not. They need logical education and facts, then they can make a choice based on what they think they are capable of.
Don't dumb stuff down. Don't make it seem like a cake-walk. A healthy respect for what the animals are capable of is the best starting block for a new keeper.
I used to keep burm and retics myself. I loved my big male burm like he was part of the family. He was gentle and easy to handle, but I would still never handle him alone. The only reason we decided to stop keeping burms and retics back in the day was after my motorcycle wreck, I was slower and lost strength on my left side.
It's not about them not being as big or scary as you think. It's about responsible, honest education and information.
I can make motorcycles seem not as scary or dangerous, but they still are and people need to understand the limits and how to be safe with them.
ANYTHING can be dumbed down to the point where it seems safe, but that does not change the fact that is reason to treat it with caution and respect.