Over this past weekend, I traveled to Delaware to meet with Bill Kirby, and I picked up some new additions to our
collection of boas. I have known Bill for a while now, and he is a terrific guy who also happens to be a boa breeder. Bill has been breeding boas since the late 1990's and put his heart and soul, along with a lot of time and energy, into some incredible breeding projects. He was the first breeder to create a Ghost boa (a boa displaying the Anery and Hypo genes) in 2000. Along with a fellow New Jersey breeder, Frank Martin, Bill also created the Avalanche boa (a Snow boa also displaying the Arabesque gene) in 2007, and the Everest boa (an Orangasm Moonglow (Hypo Snow) also displaying the Arabesque gene - 5 different traits!) in 2009.
Bill has had snakes for approximately 25 of his 50 years, but unfortunately due to legislation that was passed in Delaware this year, Bill could not keep his collection. The
new legislation requires that he purchase a $25 permit for each of his animals (which would be good for 3 years), but more importantly he would not be allowed to breed his boas unless he was licensed as a zoo. This new legislation effectively ended Bill's years of hard work and dedication to his hobby.
Here is a link to an article that was posted on
Delaware Online on January 2, 2010 regarding the legislation and the resulting impact on one reptile enthusiast.
We will be carrying on Bill's vision that he had for his boa breeding projects with the animals that we have acquired. Bill had planned on creating Blood Leopards, Motley Leopards, Hypo Leopards, Bloods mixed with Hog Island boas, and a few others that will happen down the road ;)....Another breeder,
Chris Gilbert, also acquired some animals from Bill and he will be continuing on with some of Bill's projects as well.
I wish the very best to Bill, and I can't thank him enough for what he has done for this "industry" and for letting me carry on with some of his projects. Bill definitely was (and still is) one of the good guys, and I know he will be following the future of boa breeding and the morphs that will be created. I feel honored to have some of Bill's animals in our collection now, and I hope I can do his good name justice and come through with the plans that he had!
Labels: Bill Kirby, Blood Hog Boas, Blood Leopard Boas, Frank Martin, Hypo Leopard Boas, Motley Leopard Boas
