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[peterjohnson64]

Originally Posted by jellybelly

This is a totally non-sensical arguement. otherwise we wouldnt have staffies, chihuahua, great dane etc. people have been keeping dogs for longer than pretty much anything else and have been inbreeding and hybridisiing these dogs for ever.

And yet there are still a plethora of breeds of animals.

There will always be purists, and there will be the (and cause i am an old fart i am going to blame it on the youngens) generation x people, who always want something bigger and better than there mate, somethin different. These people wont be herpers as such, more so they will be a person with a pet,and it just happens that the pet is a snake, so therefore linage and breed etc, wont make a slap of difference. THey just wan what they think is cool.

Jellybelly, do you realise that all dogs are merely canis lupus familiaris? All of them are the same species. No subspecies or different types of scientific names. Really, they are just canis lupus but because they now look so much different to a wolf they added the familiaris to indicate that they are actually a domesticated wolf. What you call Staffies, chihauhas etc are merely human interpretations of different morphs of the wolf. Even a dingo is Canis lupus.

Our carpet pythons are actually different species (spilota, Imbricata or Bredli) or sub-species (all the spilota complex).

So what you call "hybradising" a dog is actually no different to puting an albino carpet over a hypermelanistic one to try to make one that looks different. True hybradising would be putting a grey fox over a red fox.

But then, what does this have to do with it anyway. As I said, I want to keep native australian animals. Personally, I wouldnt put an NT frilly over a Qld Frilly, or an NT BHP over a Qld BHP either. So even if the spilota complex were merged into one species then I still wouldn't want to see a Sydney Carpet crossed with a Tully Carpet. Thats just me.

But if you merely want to make designer snakes that are morphed and crossed to make more desirable pets then that is your perogative. I agree, we have done this to Canis lupus over thousands of years.

And as for writing to the law makers. I am more than willing to put my money where my mouth is there. In fact, I have today finished a submission that Mac Herps will be making to the NSW Licensing Review that recommends that we make hybradising reptiles illegal in NSW.