First off, want to thank everyone who has posted in this discussion as it has been extremely insightful from all perspectives and opinions.
""That being said, being financially driven does not equal poor quality animals - it simply doesn’t. The same is true the other way, having passion does not equal high quality animals.""
While this can be true it doesn't really make sense. There are many industries that we can reference in which greed has done a tremendous amount of negative impact to the animal and/or goods due to being financially driven. I think that's all anyone is trying to say here. Simply put you've got 2 kinds of sellers in this circumstance with each having a primary interest and then everything else falls behind that. (1) Those who are doing it for a dollar and care only about the species to be sure they can make said dollar. At the end of the day as long as they can sell a product that passes initial inspection and gets them the top dollar they aren't really concerned about anything else. It all comes down to financial gain, the health of the animal is just a by product of ensuring they get their top dollar. (2) Then there are those who have years invested in this species and are conscious of making sure they thrive. They have a true passion for ensuring these animals remain healthy, for no other reason than to seem the flourish. A by-product of there years of passion is that they have been able to create a business because of this passion. This business I feel isn't about the money, but more about ensuring that this species can continue to grow. The money is a secondary source and motivational factor in raising these Aldabra's. I mean let's be honest, its great to have a hobby and be passionate about something. The only thing better is making money from something that you absolutely love. I think that is every person's dream and only a few of us are fortunate enough to get to do something like this. I don't think there is any debate about who you would rather obtain an Aldabra from when you consider the two.
I can't blame Tom one bit for recommending AldabraMan, I mean his passion and excellent track record speak for itself. Now you take some of the other people that you can purchase an Aldabra from and its just a fact of doing business, you are very likely going to have a lower success rate due to different factors. This is to not say you're going to have a negative experience with them. All that's being said here is that your experience is most likely going to be the most positive by going through Aldabraman based on this forum. Not saying anyone else is going to be negative, but without the other individuals being active and providing updates, providing insight into there process for there Aldabra's it's hard to recommend them here. This forum clearly biased towards AldabraMan and we should be, he's earned it and worked hard to make sure we are kept in the loop and provides excellent insight and knowledge into many different areas.
I do think you are kind of taking what Tom is saying out of context, but that's neither here nor there. This thread has been very insightful, so again thank you all.
""That being said, being financially driven does not equal poor quality animals - it simply doesn’t. The same is true the other way, having passion does not equal high quality animals.""
While this can be true it doesn't really make sense. There are many industries that we can reference in which greed has done a tremendous amount of negative impact to the animal and/or goods due to being financially driven. I think that's all anyone is trying to say here. Simply put you've got 2 kinds of sellers in this circumstance with each having a primary interest and then everything else falls behind that. (1) Those who are doing it for a dollar and care only about the species to be sure they can make said dollar. At the end of the day as long as they can sell a product that passes initial inspection and gets them the top dollar they aren't really concerned about anything else. It all comes down to financial gain, the health of the animal is just a by product of ensuring they get their top dollar. (2) Then there are those who have years invested in this species and are conscious of making sure they thrive. They have a true passion for ensuring these animals remain healthy, for no other reason than to seem the flourish. A by-product of there years of passion is that they have been able to create a business because of this passion. This business I feel isn't about the money, but more about ensuring that this species can continue to grow. The money is a secondary source and motivational factor in raising these Aldabra's. I mean let's be honest, its great to have a hobby and be passionate about something. The only thing better is making money from something that you absolutely love. I think that is every person's dream and only a few of us are fortunate enough to get to do something like this. I don't think there is any debate about who you would rather obtain an Aldabra from when you consider the two.
I can't blame Tom one bit for recommending AldabraMan, I mean his passion and excellent track record speak for itself. Now you take some of the other people that you can purchase an Aldabra from and its just a fact of doing business, you are very likely going to have a lower success rate due to different factors. This is to not say you're going to have a negative experience with them. All that's being said here is that your experience is most likely going to be the most positive by going through Aldabraman based on this forum. Not saying anyone else is going to be negative, but without the other individuals being active and providing updates, providing insight into there process for there Aldabra's it's hard to recommend them here. This forum clearly biased towards AldabraMan and we should be, he's earned it and worked hard to make sure we are kept in the loop and provides excellent insight and knowledge into many different areas.
I do think you are kind of taking what Tom is saying out of context, but that's neither here nor there. This thread has been very insightful, so again thank you all.