Torment breeding is known from dogs and cats – but reptiles are also bred today so that they look spectacular. The veterinarian Danilo Saß has gained experience in Hamburg’s largest animal shelter.
When it comes to torture breeding, many people first think of dogs that have trouble breathing or kneecaps popping out when they walk, or cats that have folded ears that constantly stick together and become inflamed.
Cruel breeding, however, also occurs with reptiles. Like the USA, for example, Germany is considered a large market for snakes with spectacular colors or lizards that no longer have any scales. These breeding trends are sometimes very controversial and produce many sick animals because genetic defects can be passed on. Animal shelters are also feeling the trend – because that’s where many of these “excess” reptiles end up. the star spoke about it with Danilo Saß, a veterinarian at the Hamburg Animal Welfare Association 1841 eV
Mr. Sass, as a veterinarian at the Hamburg animal shelter on Süderstraße, you are also responsible for reptiles, including snakes and lizards. One hears again and again of “fashion breeds” of these animals, such as certain colors. Where does the torturous breeding begin, i.e. the targeted reproduction that means physical damage or pain for the animals?
The differentiation is often not so simple. The breeding of morphs, i.e. animals with certain physical characteristics, has been around for many decades. It is a completely normal tool from the construction kit of evolution that sometimes animals hatch out of the egg that look a little different and that may arouse curiosity in humans to deliberately reproduce such animals. But in the last 20 years it’s really taken to the extreme.
The “spider” form of the ball python is considered torture breeding
Can you give a few examples?
At first, this morph breeding was mainly used for corn snakes, but in the meantime the breeding of many species has become enormously professional. Meanwhile, the West African ball python is the most-trailed snake in the world. It seems to offer a very large potential simply because of its genome. There are crazy things, such as the color form “Piebald”: one half of the snake is normally colored, the other half is snow-white.
Not all color variants are torture breeds. The first to be referred to as torture is the ball python’s “spider” form, where the pattern stretches thinly across the body like a spider’s web. Computer tomography has revealed a crippled inner ear in many such snakes. The organ of balance in these animals does not function properly – which leads to impairments of varying degrees. All representatives of this color form show a head that wobbles in different forms, the so-called wobbler syndrome.
Then there is the trend of scalelessness in lizards, which I would clearly describe as torture breeding. That basically started with the bearded dragons. These lizards naturally have prominent horny papillae on some scales. In the meantime, the animals are bred in such a way that they should feel nicer.
Veterinarian Danilo Saß
Graduated from veterinary medicine Danilo Sat in Berlin. From 2018 to 2020 he worked in the Wasbek Small Animal Clinic, where he was in charge of the exotics consultation, among other things.
Since 2020, Sass has been working as a veterinarian at the Hamburger Tierschutzverein von 1841 eV – and is responsible for all animals there, but reptile patients are particularly important to him. That’s why he also takes care of the reptiles and birds in the Lübeck Animal Welfare Association. “As a veterinarian, I see myself as an animal rights activist and I’m therefore very happy to work in an animal welfare association,” says the 35-year-old veterinarian.
But the sun-loving lizards need UV light, i.e. the blazing sun, so that their bone metabolism works and also for their species-specific well-being. Without the light they need for life, their bones weaken, resulting in deformities and severe pain. So scaleless lizards have a huge problem. This applies to all sun worshipers among the reptiles. Similar cases exist in albino green iguanas. Due to the lack of color pigments, such an animal will go blind very quickly in the blazing sun.
With an animal whose head is constantly shaking, it’s easy to tell that something is wrong. Is it always possible to see well in reptiles when they were bred to be sick?
Unfortunately not – unlike a mammal, you often don’t notice that a snake is unwell. For example, permanent nausea when the balance is disturbed. Because a snake cannot vomit in the classic sense. It is also not immediately apparent that she is less able to orientate herself. Ultimately, many of these animals with special color breeds are severely physically handicapped.
Reptiles are generally animals that don’t show that much of themselves. Snakes tend to be ambush hunters and are therefore inactive for most of the day. You can tell by the fact that you only have to feed them every two to three weeks. However, there is now a lot of scientific research being done at universities on the question of torturous breeding – so it will be interesting to see what will happen in the next few years. I expect significant breeding restrictions for some morphs or bans.
If breeding morphs can produce such sick animals, is it all legal? Can everyone just breed like that?
Yes and no. According to the Animal Welfare Act, Section 11b, no animals may be bred in such a way that the offspring experience hereditary pain, suffering and damage. But as far as I know, there are no court rulings on this and violations are not prosecuted particularly severely.
The keeping of exotics is not for everyone. That is why terrarium associations also demand that future keepers have to prove their expertise.
How is it that so many reptiles are bred here?
One important reason is certainly technical progress. Many snakes and lizards used to be considered incredibly difficult to breed. Let’s take the ball python again, for example: The climate in its native West Africa consists of a dry season and a rainy season. The rainy season then triggers the willingness to mate. Today, in modern terrariums, the animals can be kept in such a way that the breeder has few “losses”. And such an animal, which used to be considered difficult to keep, can now be bred in large numbers and very successfully.
Breeding is not only private, because people simply enjoy the appearance and observing the animals. But also because some color variants bring a lot of money, right?
There are animals that fetch thousands of euros or dollars, and some snakes with new color forms are said to have been sold for six-figure sums. But interest quickly wanes as soon as there are more animals with this coloration. An example: When I was studying, there was a hype for pythons with the color “banana” – white and yellow and with brown speckles inside – just like a banana. Unbelievable five-digit sums were paid for this. You can now get such animals on Ebay classifieds for 50 euros. And the hype was only a good ten years ago.
We’ve talked a lot about color morphs and torment breeding now. Also, is keeping and breeding reptiles a bad thing in general?
No, not at all. Many people have a similar relationship with reptiles as others have with dogs or cats and take very good care of their snakes or lizards. In general, however, there are two major currents in terraristics: one that really follows these breeding trends – and the second, more classic, that tries to keep the animals as close as possible to nature. I can also approve of the efforts to preserve specimens of wild species. That’s the idea that many zoos have too: you preserve a species in case it goes extinct so that you can later release it back into the wild.
How is the shelter affected by the consequences of morph breeding?
We always have to do with morphs, especially ball pythons. However, we are currently not overloaded with these animals.
What you also need to know: In animal welfare, we always see the trends with a time lag. So what is modern today will probably be here in ten years. The animals that are handed over or come to us as confiscated or found animals end up in our animal shelter when the market is saturated.
However, the really big reptile boom of the 90s is now over, and during the corona pandemic we were also able to place many snakes, lizards and turtles.
Then everything is fine for the animal shelters, right?
No, because we also fear that we will soon have to take in more reptiles again if people no longer work so much in the home office. Also, energy prices could hit us. Because reptiles are, so to speak, the power guzzlers among pets. After all, such a terrarium usually imitates a tropical climate of 30 degrees around the clock – like in West Africa. If electricity gets even more expensive, that can become a real problem for some owners. And then these animals end up back with us.
Mr Sass, thank you very much for the interview
Watch a video from our archive from Thailand: A large python climbs up a tree. The reptile cleverly clings to the trunk. The technique is mesmerizing and fascinating at the same time.