Irresponsible breeders

I was just browsing groups about bearded dragons and I came across the most horrible thread. There were 2 "breeders" trading tips about breeding. one of them was advising the other that he kept his male and female together and that as soon as the babies were sold (at 4 weeks) his female was already gravid again. Oh, and his method of selling them was to drive them around to the petstores at 4 weeks "You do not get as much money, but you can get rid of them real quick."

I get so unbelievably freakin angry when people treat animals like ATM machines.

Sorry, I just needed to vent.

I know how you feel ...

I've seen people like that . To them its nothing more then a buisness, they could care less that its a living breathing animal that has feelings . They just wanna know how much money they can make off of it . The ONLY good thing about it is they usually aren't in buiness to long since their animals are usually substandard and no one will deal with them for long .

I think if you guys dig a little deeper and knew more of the truths out there you'll be even more pissed off. I've heard of worst.

Ignorance is bliss indeed....too bad we can't say it proudly though

they should be drawn and quartered.

fishwithoutabik said:

they should be drawn and quartered.

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how bout sketched and dimed

One word: Silkbacks

I don't beleive it's animal cruelty, I suppose it's cruel to raise young that ARE going to be sick but that's not my point. It is however irresponsablie buisness - inbreeding dragons is risky. Inbreeding them until they lose their scales? Really unsteady practice there. Selling them for over 1000 dollars? That's something I have to say is questionable to say the least.

And trading standards with animals over the internet has never been a trustworthy thing, I'm sure if this happened in a pet shop they'd be put down faster than their stock die.

Though I must say I don't know enough about silk backs to honeslty say how healthy they are but I'm judging entirely by the rule: Inbred=sickly.

I like competative animal breeding industries that brought us fires, corals (my dragon!), german giants, sandfires and so on but that certainly does not require any kind of animal cruelty to acheive.

Dragons are slowly becoming the new dogs. Everyone has access to them including the perpetually misinformed and the sadistic.

It's sad people think if you can then you should.

It is a business like any other. Some people do it not for the love of animals, but for money.

I know horse and dog breeders that dislike horses and dogs. It is their business and livelyhood to breed these animals. Same as many snake and lizard breeders.

As for inbreeding, Choobaine, the original post said that two were kept together and bred over and over - that is not inbreeding. Even if that pair were brother and sister they could be inbred over and over for years without any inbred depression in the offsrping. The problem of inbreeding occurs only when the offspring is bred back to the parents and between eachother for generations and generations.

Many dog breeds and horse breeds come by inbreeding and these animals are (mostly) not sickly. Sure, some breeds are more susceptible to problems than others, but they are not generally sickly. No animal cruelty is present in this topic.

This over breeding of animals isn't ethical, but in no way can you call it cruelty. If you wish to see the cruel side of the pet trade, go to a importer/exporter. You will see the wild caught animals go through the meat grinder of the for profit machine. The lucky ones are sold before they arrive, the ones that aren't sold before they die are placed in overcrowded conditions, stressed and are parasitic. I have seen 80 rats snakes crammed into one 6' vision cage. Did you ask yourself, how did they feed them and give the water? The simple answer is they don't feed them, they can't and they all get to drink filthy water from the dish they all soak in. They were sold to the wholesaler so cheap that he bought all he could, not caring that there was no room to keep them and no possible way to feed them. The deaths were all taken into account when they were purchased. This is not the worst of the things that I witnessed at a wholesale outfit in my state. I guess that when you have seen how wild caught animals are treated with absolutely no regard for life, animals that are being over bred seem pretty lucky, after all they get food and clean water. The next time you purchase a wild caught animal, know that when you give your cash to the vendor your keeping the doors open at the wholesaler.

Peace-
Mark

Philk man! You KNOW me and you know me well enough to know I understand that concept! :wall: I've talked to you enough for you to know I'm smarter than that

I was giving an example of extreme desire for profit over the wellbeing of the animal. Silly silly man.

Keeping two dragons together isn't good as they are simply not social animals. The male will overbreed the female and wear her out. Not to mention there's a risk of them fighting or one intimidating the other and making the weaker eat less.

Silkbacks never look healthy. They have mentioned many health concerns for the animal though claimed they haven't experienced any yet. Who knows. It doesn't look like a safe bet honestly. And yes I know what inbreeding is thank you very much.

http://www.dachiu.com/gallery/silk66.jpg

Agreed. Once I learned how petstores came by their animals, I decided not to purchase pets through them anymore. I am currently trying to adopt some rats, and this is my first time going through breeders for them, and thus far I am very pleased with how picky the breeders are in selecting owners. I will probably be waiting a bit since there are only 2 active rat breeders in Tx from what i can find. Its going to be well worth the wait, though, knowing that I am not putting money into some crappy over-breeders pocket.

Arachnoheebs said:

The next time you purchase a wild caught animal, know that when you give your cash to the vendor your keeping the doors open at the wholesaler.

Peace-
Mark

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