There’s no reason why they can’t just require the site have a buyer show that they’re certified thoroughly trained to handle these snakes and clarify, which states are allowed to keep hots or not. There’s really no reason not to.
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I believe the reason can be explained in one word.
Liability.
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Venomous animals are allowed for sale. They just are ones that don’t have much significance medically. Hognose, some garters, mangroves, beaded lizards, scorpions.
The difference is that a medically significant venomous species can be a huge liability. Giving an easy access to a potentially deadly animal is not a way to keep a large commercial hub running. Information can be forged regarding IDs and as far as I know there isn’t a way to become ‘verified’ or ‘certified’ for handling hots outside of a zoo, lab or wildlife control situation.
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Not to mention having to ship these dangerous animals… like everyone else has said its a huge liability issue.
Just like anything else there are bad actors in the Hots hobby. They could do something or neglect an aspect of selling a dangerous animal that can hurt a lot of people, I’ve seen more than my fair share of improper shipping standards in breeders… I couldn’t imagine the outcome of hots breeders doing that.
Non hot escapes during shipping is one thing, of course its a nuisance but its nothing compared to having a venomous snake escape during shipment, biting and potentially killing a bystander in the process.
There are very good reasons why Morphmarket does not allow the selling of medically significant venomous animals on their platform.
Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against breeding and selling hots, I have a good friend that has a large collection of them… It just needs to be done responsibly and strictly. Morphmarket is great but they can’t oversee each of the thousands of sales that go through their platform with the precise care that needs to be done for Hots…
If people want to go buy hots they can go to reptile trade shows where the breeder can meet their customers face to face and converse about what the responsibilities and risks are. I go to shows in my area that are really big on selling hots.
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This has previously been suggested and discussed here:
It’s not going to happen. As everyone else has mentioned, there’s a lot of liability involved and making these animals more visible to people who are unqualified to have them is not a good idea. The optics are terrible. Heck, we’re not even a year out from the last big incident that resulted in more bans being enacted.
There’s also no way to 100% ensure that the buyer is qualified. No standardized certification, no tests, not to mention you’d need someone highly experienced to individually verify each person’s credentials. Those who are interested and serious about keeping hots know where to get them already, it’s not like they’re hard to get ahold of if you know where to look/who to talk to.
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This is unfortunately very true.
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And even then accidents happen but they know better what to do
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The majority of the venomous community doesn’t need or want this. We like being out of the mainstream. By the time you’re experienced enough to keep most of the uncommon stuff, you generally know exactly where to find it anyway.
Darien has mentioned before though that his lawyers said absolutely not.
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That sounds like the final word on the topic. Next time someone posts about them, we should just lead with this!
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Seems like this question gets asked from time to time, often with similarly flawed logic and info as the thread title and opening post.
When one combines this info
with this info
it’s easy to see why this
is the only reasonable position.
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