Chris Keil <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
>> We obviously get contacted by large numbers of people who want gerbils.
>> Some just want rescues. Others want something as a pet. Others want
>> something to breed from. However, we have learnt to notice some of the
>> warning signs of people who want only to exploit the gerbils.
>
>This may sound dumb, but how does one "exploit" a gerbil? I'm mostly
>unfamiliar with animal husbandry circles of any kind, so I'm not sure what
>kind of unseemly practices one might engage in. I'm sure I'm not the only
>one who's wondering this, so if you (or any of the cannier GML breeders)
>could mention what they might do- I'm at kind of as loss; since it doesn't
>seem like there's much profit to be made (although, again, I'm unfamiliar
>with any kind of competitive animal breeding, so my experience is also
>limited.)
A profit would be very difficult to make from gerbils. That doesn't mean
that certain people in the UK have not promoted new colours charging as
much has $100 for a pair of gerbils or even more. Sometimes high prices
have been charged for animals that were clearly unwell. Some people will
pay extremely high prices for unusual animals and when they are
exploited, the animals also often suffer. I have been told that one well
known UK breeder who sold unusual colours at extremely high prices had
all their gerbils destroyed by the authorities for environmental health
reasons as they were found to be carrying E. coli.
--
Julian
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* Jackie and Julian *
* [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* National Gerbil Society *
* http://www.gerbils.co.uk/ *
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